PZO9229 Lost Cities of Golarion

Transcription

®
™
Lost Cities
of
Golarion
Tim Hitchcock, Michael Kortes, and Jason Nelson
Lost Cities of Golarion
Xin-Shalast
Storasta
Sun Temple
Colony
Ilvarandin
Tumen
Kho
Lost Cities of Golarion
A Pathfinder Campaign Setting Supplement
This book works best with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and the Pathfinder Roleplaying
Game Bestiary. Although it is suitable for play in any fantasy world, it is
optimized for use in the Pathfinder campaign setting.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Ilvarandin
Kho
Storasta
Sun Temple Colony
Tumen
Xin-Shalast
2
4
14
24
34
44
54
Credits
Authors • Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge,
Michael Kortes, Jason Nelson, and Russ Taylor
Cover Artist • Daren Bader
Interior Artists • Branko Bistrovic, Damien Mammoliti,
and Florian Stitz
Cartographer • Rob Lazzaretti
Creative Director • James Jacobs
Senior Art Director • Sarah E. Robinson
Managing Editor • F. Wesley Schneider
Development Leads • Mark Moreland and James L. Sutter
Editing and Development • Judy Bauer, Christopher Carey,
James Jacobs, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Sean K Reynolds,
and F. Wesley Schneider
Editorial Assistance • Jason Bulmahn
Graphic Designer • Andrew Vallas
Production Specialist • Crystal Frasier
Publisher • Erik Mona
Paizo CEO • Lisa Stevens
Vice President of Operations • Jeffrey Alvarez
Director of Sales • Pierce Watters
Finance Manager • Christopher Self
Technical Director • Vic Wertz
Marketing Manager • Hyrum Savage
Special Thanks • The Paizo Customer Service,
Warehouse, and Website Teams
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Advanced Player’s Guide, and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game GameMastery Guide. These rules can be found online as part of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document at
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Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion is published by Paizo Publishing, LLC under the Open Game License version 1.0a Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Paizo
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Printed in China.
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion
That Which Is Lost
E
very city is an adventure location.
Given the sheer number of people living and
working in a full-f ledged city, there’s bound to be just
about any story you can imagine being told within its walls and
buildings. Love and hate, murder, kidnapping, redemption,
and falls from grace—it’s all just one block over, or in the next
apartment. Add in a few fantastical elements, some shadow
wizards, secret assassins, or honor-bound crusaders, and the
possibilities increase a thousandfold.
At least, that’s what we at Paizo thought when we came
up with the idea for Cities of Golarion, an earlier installment
in the Pathf inder Campaign Setting line. By our reckoning,
getting six brand-new urban campaign settings in the same
book, each full of weird locations and f lavorful sidebars,
would create an incredible resource for GMs looking for a
quick city to set their next adventure in. As it turns out, a lot
of the folks who picked up the book agreed, and we began
thinking about how we might go about introducing even
more such locations in the future.
Yet as we were thinking, we realized something else. While
living cities are a lot of fun, there are some stories they can’t
tell: the stories in which a city falls, and horrors forgotten for a
thousand years take root in its ruins. More than just dungeons
within a city, we wanted to present entire cities that were
themselves dungeons, with huge, bizarre themes that are too
big for your average city. Whereas Cities of Golarion was designed
to let GMs drop their PCs into the world and immediately
start adventuring, this new book would put groups through
their paces, providing irresistible lures and potentially fatal
roadblocks before they ever reach the city walls.
Thus Lost Cities of Golarion was born. Within its pages,
you’ll find six heavily detailed cities drawn straight from the
mythology of Golarion itself. These are no generic adventure
sites, though they can of course be used as such by GMs in
need of a quick adventure setting. Rather, these cities are
living, breathing parts of the Pathfinder campaign setting—
from the crashed remains of the legendary sky-city of Kho
to the crumbling Thassilonian stronghold of Xin-Shalast.
The creatures there have become legends, and every idol and
artifact speaks of age and abandonment.
Now send in your PCs and shake things up a little.
avenues, humanoids of all shapes and types cavort and
indulge in a festival of earthly delights, their secret hideaway
a hedonistic utopia. Or is it? For the things in the dark may
not be what they seem, and those emissaries who carry word of
glorious Ilvarandin may not be who they say they are. Written
by Russ Taylor—for additional information on Ilvarandin, see
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Into the Darklands.
Kho: Millennia ago, the Shory possessed a magnificent
culture, and were known for their refinement, their art—and
most of all, their magic. Through the efforts of their powerful
aeromancers, the Shory astonished other nations by lifting
entire cities free from the earth and sending them sailing
high above the clouds, where they wandered at their residents’
command, carrying the Shory far across continents and oceans.
Yet despite their power, no empire lasts forever, and eventually
the Shory fell from grace, and with them their cities. The first
sky city to fall was the legendary city of Kho, which crashed
under mysterious circumstances on the northeastern edge of
the Mwangi Expanse, where the jungle meets the mountains.
Today, the city lies lost and forgotten by many—but not
uninhabited. For inside its wreckage, strange energies and
engines still fire and pulse, and even stranger residents have
claimed them as their own. Written by Jason Nelson—for
more information on Kho and the surrounding regions, see
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Heart of the Jungle.
Storasta: Once known for its gardens and groves, Storasta
was lost long ago to the ravages of the demonic Worldwound. Its
lands, annexed by the Abyss, defy even the greatest Mendevian
warriors’ attempts to reach and redeem them. Though no more
than 70 miles from the gleaming crusader city of Nerosyan,
Storasta today is a ruin, all blackened stones and tainted plant
life. Even many demons find the place inhospitable, so choked
and infested is it with assassin vines, corrupted treants, and
worse. Both the landscape and the river are grotesque parodies
of their former glory, yet there are still great treasures and
opportunities within the demons’ garden for those who dare
pass beyond its unholy gates. Written by Jason Nelson.
Sun Temple Colony: Azlant, the first bastion of human
civilization, is little more than a legend today. From its womb
rose gods and demons, and the culture that gave birth and
succor to many of the cultures of the Inner Sea. Yet as time’s
millstone ground on, Azlant fell, destroyed in the cataclysm of
the Starstone’s fall. While most of the great nation sank into the
sea, there remain scattered islands and patches still above the
waves of the trackless Arcadian Ocean, guarded by the vicious
and alien Mordant Spire elves. It was on one such island
refuge that intrepid settlers from Avistan attempted to found
The Lost Cities
Below are summaries of the six cities presented in this book.
Ilvarandin: In the deepest reaches of the Darklands lies a
mostly abandoned city of spires and towers, stretching high
into the darkness of a gaping vault. Within its shadowed
2
Introduction
a colony, a bold new holding from which the many peoples
of Avistan could search for lost knowledge and explore the
secrets of their own uncharted past. Yet what they found there
was not simply old relics and writings, ancient technology and
indecipherable magic. Despite their power, the great Azlanti
were not perfect, and not all of their experiments were wise
or ethical. It was the result of one such experiment that those
first Andoren colonists encountered—and which became
their doom. For on the lost and shattered islands of the Sun
Temple Colony, an amorphous and gestating godling awaits,
ready to secure new worshipers by any means necessary.
Written by Brandon Hodge.
Tumen: Amid the drifting sands of Osirion’s great deserts
hides a city of wonders. Constructed by the legendary
Four Pharaohs toward the end of their reign, the cliffside
redoubt known as Tumen is four cities in one, each built to
the specif ications of its patron pharaoh. Yet with the fall
of those godlike rulers, Tumen too has fallen into disuse
and disrepair, with any roads to its gates hidden completely
by the wildly shifting sands. Though the era of pharaonic
greatness has passed into the history books, the lost city
of Tumen still maintains many of the wonders that made
it famous... and even more of the dangers. Written by
Michael Kortes—for more information on Tumen and the
surrounding region, see the Pathf inder Player Companion
Osirion, Land of Pharaohs.
Xin-Shalast: Before Earthfall, before the exodus and return
of the elves, before Aroden became a god and Azlant was lost
to the sea, the great empire of Thassilon dominated the
northern coastal region known today as Varisia. Within this
nation, seven rulers known as the Runelords presided over
seven different fiefdoms, each dominated by one of the Seven
Rewards of Rule (values that eventually became known as the
Seven Sins of the Soul). Though the sinful empire has long
since crumbled, leaving in its wake the shattered tribes that
would eventually become Varisia’s indigenous peoples, not all
of its monuments and relics have gone with it. High in the
Kodar Mountains, the city of Xin-Shalast still stands, silent
and brooding in the shadow of the great volcano Mhar Massif.
Once the capital of Runelord Karzoug the Claimer’s empire
of greed, Xin-Shalast now waits for bold adventurers to lay
their own claim on its riches and awaken that which is best
left asleep. Written by Tim Hitchcock—for more information
on Xin-Shalast, Karzoug, and the empire of Thassilon, see the
Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, particularly “Spires of
Xin-Shalast” in Pathfinder Adventure Path #6.
Perhaps the most unique of these latter sections is the city
campaign section. Broken into low, middle, and high level,
the campaign sections offer unique adventure hooks and
gamemastering advice tailored to parties from all three level
bands, as well as handy tips should you decide to run an entire
campaign set in the city.
Yet a lost city needs more than just cool locations,
irresistible adventure hooks, and a beautiful full-page map.
It also needs monsters—lots of monsters. Fortunately, we’ve
got you covered. In addition to random encounter tables
(again broken down by level band), we’ve also got a number
of variant monsters for each location, new takes on classic
monsters and simple modifications to turn generic creatures
into memorable, region-specif ic horrors. Add on a full stat
block for a brand-new monster or villain, plus a new major
magical item or valuable artifact for each city, and you’ve got
a whole toolbox of terror to throw at your players.
Using This Book
Each city in this book is presented using the same format,
for greater ease of reference. While some of the categories are
obvious in their function—the initial overview, appearance,
history, residents, relations and trade, and sites of interest
sections—some are a bit more involved.
3
Ilvarandin
“Of the poems the noted alchemist Vumeshki published in his
noteworthy (if obscure) text ‘Songs at Sun’s Ebb,’ none has
fascinated readers more than ‘Ilvarandin.’ In this curious
poem, Vumeshki describes eternal life not on some distant plane
beyond death, but in a physical utopia hidden in the unreachable
depths below our own world. Note that in the original edition,
the last quatrain is omitted. This omission, together with the
obviously inferior technique and broken meter of these final
four lines, clearly indicates that this stanza was added by a
later, lesser talent, whose identity remains a mystery.”
—Moraknon of Cheliax, penned in exile in Magnimar
4
Ilvarandin
D
Ilvarandin
eep below western Avistan, hidden in an
ancient cavern the size of a small country in
the Darklands of Orv, sprawl the silent streets
of Ilvarandin. Hundreds of miles wide, the vast city is
perhaps the largest urban sprawl in or under Golarion,
yet the endless streets and grand plazas of the so-called
Mute Metropolis lie silent, its few inhabitants huddled
together in small enclaves. Only in the city’s heart does
Ilvarandin awaken. Here, dwarves walk side by side with
duergar, elves rub shoulders with drow, and humans
and derros live together in peace. None grow old here in
High Ilvarandin, for it is an unearthly paradise of feasts
and pleasure palaces. Yet this utopian vision is a sham:
those who walk its streets are already dead, their corpses
slave to the whims of intellect devourer masters who wear
f lesh like clothing, using their victims to indulge their
unspeakable depravities.
Isolated settlements of refugees from the upper
Darklands eke out a meager existence in Ilvarandin’s outer
reaches. They live in terror of the city’s mysterious heart,
for while those who travel to the center of Ilvarandin may
return, but they never do so unchanged. In truth, the
horror is nearer than any suspect. The intellect devourers
watch over these outlying settlements as humans tend
ranches, fattening the bodies and minds of their
herds until they’re ready to use them. And with the
development of an eerie new elixir known as the midnight
milk, a magical drug brewed from the secretions of vast
fungal monsters, the intellect devourers are f inally
expanding their attentions beyond Ilvarandin’s borders
to the surface world far above.
In deepest dark where corpselight glows,
And love and life eternal flows;
The spiral path of midnight shows:
The route to Ilvarandin.
Bright towers reach from sunless stones,
Strange steeples vie with terraced cones;
A blessed sight for aching bones:
The spires of Ilvarandin.
To live a life on Sunless coast,
To love and lust amid the host,
To seek and feel what pleases most:
The joys of Ilvarandin.
Long life for all and death for none,
The mortal coil at last undone;
Eternal bliss and joy begun:
The gift of Ilvarandin.
Yet distant lords of dark yesteryear,
Draw plans in caverns steeped in fear—
The worm-kings of Denebrum draw near:
The end of Ilvarandin.
and subterranean herds. Even portions of the cavern
ceiling have given way as the ancient magic sustaining
the Vault’s architecture has faltered. Little trace remains
of Ilvarandin’s original inhabitants. The rare intact
sculpture, relief, or fresco indicates that many different
races once called the great city home, but tells nothing of
their fate.
Appearance
The city of Ilvarandin lies within an immense cavern in
Orv, the deepest realm of the Darklands below the Inner
Sea region. Known as Vaults, these vast caverns were built
and abandoned eons ago by mysterious creatures known
today only as the Vault Builders. The city of Ilvarandin fills
its vault from wall to wall, a dizzying expanse of towers,
domes, arches, avenues, and plazas. The architectural style
varies throughout, with buildings showing Azlanti, elven,
serpentfolk, and even aboleth inf luence. Other expanses
resemble styles known to the surface only in ancient
ruins of uncertain origin, and still others are unlike any
construction found elsewhere on Golarion.
Clouds of phosphorescent fungi f loating high above
keep the city in a perpetual pale green twilight. These
fungi also find ready homes in the graceful spires and
towers of Ilvarandin, creating glowing landmarks visible
for miles around.
The millennia have not been kind to Ilvarandin. Whole
districts have fallen into disrepair, and others have
been deliberately razed to make way for fungal farms
History
The founding of Ilvarandin is lost in the mists of time.
That the city was the work of the mysterious Vault Builders
seems certain, for only they had mastery over the magic
that keeps the dense stone of Golarion’s interior from
reclaiming Orv’s many Vaults. Ilvarandin is ancient
almost beyond reckoning, built in the manner of empires
long faded from Golarion. The ultimate purpose of the
patchwork city remains as mysterious as the fate of the
Vault Builders themselves.
When Earthfall reshaped Golarion thousands of years
ago, the Vault Builders were already long vanished. When
a band of elves seeking refuge from the cataclysm above
f led deep into the Darklands, the seemingly abandoned
city was an answer to their prayers. Not yet affected by the
foul inf luences that would turn them into drow, the elves
settled in the western portion of the city, in an area built
5
1
TO
DENEBRUM
Ilvarandin
0
20
40
miles
80
TOLOSKA
AUMENTRAL
SEKALETH
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r
TO MIDNIGHT
MOUNTAINS
ES
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S
OTHA-THOLA
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High Ilvarandin
URKALLA
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OSSUARY
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High Ilvarandin
0
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er
Ilvarandin
in familiar elven style. But soon the vanishings began.
First a few lone elves, then entire families disappeared,
as though they had simply abandoned their homes and
walked away. The surviving elves stayed, believing the
city still safer than the other terrors of the Darklands.
A scant year later, the vanished elves returned in force,
f ighting their kin savagely. Soon the root of their
treachery became clear—as the crazed elves fell, horrors
burst forth from their skulls. Shaking themselves free
of gore were nearly indestructible mockeries of brains,
walking on four clawed feet. These brain-creatures fell
upon the elves, slaying them and claiming their bodies.
Only a handful of the elves escaped Ilvarandin, their
harrowing tale becoming the earliest account of the
dangers of Ilvarandin.
Frustrated at the loss of so many potential hosts, the
intellect devourers never again acted so rashly. They spread
agents clad in stolen f lesh throughout the Darklands,
seeding whispers and rumors of the Mute Metropolis
among every society they discovered. Visionaries,
malcontents, and refugees were lured to Ilvarandin in
search of the promised utopia at its heart. Countless
small communities have grown up in Ilvarandin over the
centuries, tended by the intellect devourers as surface
dwellers tend crops and cattle.
Yet not all in the Darklands were easy prey. In the
neighboring Vault of Denebrum, the intellect devourers
found their greatest foe: the neothelids, few in number but
more than a match for the walking brains. The intellect
devourers retreated back to the safety of Ilvarandin, but
neothelids have long memories and great patience.
Five hundred years ago, the neothelids shook off the
malaise of their ancient near-extinction, and once again
sought mastery over all of Orv. For centuries, the two
ancient evils have warred by proxy, the neothelids using
wriggling minions like seugathi and worms that walk, and
the intellect devourers battling with stolen bodies selected
specifically for their skills and powers in battle. Countless
times Denebrum has neared victory in the field, only to
be thwarted by the clever stratagems of High Ilvarandin.
Even so, the intellect devourers continue to lose ground,
and now the forces of Denebrum are encamped even
within Ilvarandin’s Vault.
homes in Sekamina above, live in the elven boroughs of
Otha-Thola to the south of Duskport and Sekaleth to the
north. Gargoyles are common in other reaches of the city,
lurking amid its countless rooftops.
Several tribes of mongrelfolk, deformed humanoids
scorned by others as worthless save for menial labor,
also reside in Ilvarandin. Vegepygmies dwell in reaches
of the city thick with fungal infestations, while duergar,
svirfneblin, and troglodytes rule other areas. The
southwestern edge of Ilvarandin borders the immense
Darklands ocean known as the Sightless Sea, and along
these jagged coastal cliffs and beaches dwell many skum
under the inf luence of hidden aboleth masters.
High Ilvarandin is the most populous of all the boroughs
of Ilvarandin, home to about 12,000 intellect devourers,
their host bodies, and a few thousand servants of varied
races. Intellect devourers are almost never seen outside
their hosts, the “skinless” among them made subjects of
endless mockery and derision.
Relations and Trade
Trade is the lifeblood of any city, even ones in the
unimaginable depths of Orv. For the intellect devourers
of High Ilvarandin, the lust for luxury competes with the
need for secrecy, and they take care that merchants not be
seen approaching the city. What cannot be imported by
magic is brought up the Irikusk River by the black galleys
of Leng. Those who pry into the affairs of the denizens of
Leng can find themselves shackled in the hold of a ship
bound for High Ilvarandin.
Outside of High Ilvarandin, ships reach the city through
the Sightless Sea, sailing up the mouth of the Irikusk to the
docks of Duskport. Here, vessels crewed by denizens of Leng,
tief lings, and even stranger crews hawk their wares, trade
slaves, and organize overland caravans. Travelers within
Ilvarandin rely on the Builder’s Way, a great marble avenue
fully a hundred feet wide that spans the entire length of
Ilvarandin. The River Irikusk also spans the Vault, though
few dare travel its full length. The burgeoning garrison of
Irith-Arnakian in Urkalla draws increasing interest from
merchants, and promises to become a new center of trade.
What little trade leaves Ilvarandin by land does so via
the southern passage toward the Vault of Doga-Delloth, as
Irith-Arnakian allows merchants free passage. Few brave
the northern route through war-torn Aumentral, and the
passage east to the Midnight Mountains is blocked by
fierce gugs who control the collapsed district of Ajamote.
Residents
Expatriates from all manner of Darklands communities
have come to Ilvarandin. Most band together in small
communities scattered through the outer edges of the city.
Morlocks in particular have taken well to the city, gathering
in dens of as many as 200 in the district of Toloska.
A number of derro settlements pepper Ilvarandin,
dwelling in tunnels under the buildings themselves.
Heretical or exiled drow, having been forced to f lee their
Sites of Interest
Aumentral: The architecture of Aumentral, now claimed
by the worm-armies of Denebrum, is more varied than
that of most of Ilvarandin’s districts. Slender towers and
ornate minarets dominate, reminiscent of old Garundi
7
1
The Scales
cities. The eastern fungus swamp has curious primitive
stone buildings, half dry, half submerged. To the west, a
great chasm splits the Vault f loor to dizzying depths. A
sizable enclave of svirfneblin dwells in the rift. Pavvid
Nermeshnatesh (N male svirfneblin illusionist 7), eldest
of the tribe and close friend of the chief, ensures their
continued survival through clandestine deals with the
worms that walk. The depths of the fissure are perilous,
yet the few svirfneblin to survive the deep came back with
opals, sapphires, and emeralds of unparalleled quality,
along with tales of searing heat and blood-drinking,
tentacled ghorazaghs (Pathfinder Adventure Path #29 84).
Travel through Aumentral is perilous indeed. Seugathi
patrols deliver strangers who are not outright slain to the
worms that walk, ancient minions of the neothelids. These
generals of Denebrum are masses of worms and maggots
walking upright in a mockery of the form of humans.
Duskport: The Irikusk River widens as it nears the
Sightless Sea, where a long stretch of piers and warehouses
lines the northern bank. Duskport is home to a fiercely
independent assortment of drow, duergar, tief lings,
mongrelfolk, and even humans. Duskport’s nominal ruler
is known only as the Rakehell, a former merchant captain
of oddly variable gender. The Rakehell entertains a steady
stream of lovers of a variety of races and both sexes. One
former paramour, the half-retired smuggler Laerstrum
(NE male drow rogue 5), suspects the Rakehell’s hand
in the disappearance of a dear friend and confidant. He
would pay handsomely for information or revenge. Storm’s
Rest is the only temple of note, built along a large dock and
dedicated to the demon lord Socothbenoth.
Otha-Thola: Graceful elven architecture dominates
the northern half of Otha-Thola, continuing even into
the shallows of the Sightless Sea. Here, a beautiful coral
city lies beneath dark waters, its only residents strange
scaled lacedons. Aboleth and their skum minions claim
the coastal waters, while skum freed of aboleth control
dwell on land. A plateau rises over a mile in height to the
south, almost reaching the roof of the Vault. A substantial
tribe of mongrelfolk dwells in the barren stone buildings
of its heights.
The Scales: The Scales make up the eastern face
of Ilvarandin. Architecture similar to the ancient
serpentfolk city of Svernagati gives way to grand ruins
of cyclopean make in the southeast. Fearsome gugs
dwell among these great spires and toppled buildings,
their seemingly random malice guided by four powerful
intellect devourers (CE intellect devourer sorcerers 10
with advanced gug host bodies).
The northern expanse of the Scales is ravaged by the
plague that gives the region its name, thickening the
skin and cracking it into dry, f laky scales. The disease is
particularly devastating to reptiles.
Type disease, contact or injury; Save Fort DC 16
Onset 1d4 days; Frequency 1/2 days
Effect 1d2 Dex damage and 1d2 Cha damage; Cure 2
consecutive saves. Reptiles and creatures with the reptilian
subtype receive a –2 penalty on saving throws and require 3
consecutive saves to recover.
Urkalla: The f ierce urdef hans of Doga-Delloth have
established a beachhead amid the remains of the blocky,
primitive buildings built in the long-forgotten fashion
of the troglodytes. Much of this borough lies in ruins,
scavenged to build their fortress of Irith-Arnakian
or razed to deny shelter to their enemies. The feral
warlord Vilthanter (NE female urdef han f ighter 9) holds
undisputed command over more than 1,000 soldiers.
She has survived not one but f ive births, all sired by
urdef hans defeated in single combat. New recruits in
the fortress prove their worth by traveling alone into the
city and returning with not less than f ive bloody skulls.
Most prized of all are skulls pierced by an intellect
devourer’s passage.
The Warrens: Named for the subterranean city beneath
their surface, the mountains of the Warrens are old and
weathered, not even a mile in height. The architecture of
Ilvarandin varies greatly in this district, but is dominated
by a mix of dwarven construction and giant-sized
buildings reminiscent of ancient Thassilon. The Warrens
are largely deserted save for all manner of crawling beasts.
A scattering of svirfneblin and duergar eke out a meager
existence in small villages, while derros are encamped in
the foothills, desperately searching for a remedy to the
blight ravaging their prized cytillesh crop (see page 20 of
Into the Darklands).
Deep within the Warrens is the Builder’s Mark, a crater
fully 3 miles across. Great stairs lead to the crater’s f loor,
devoid of the buildings found elsewhere in Ilvarandin.
Rumors abound of a secret entrance concealed in the
crater’s f loor that leads to a Vault Builder’s personal
domain. All manner of oozes live within the Builder’s Mark,
themselves fodder for titan centipedes. Scattered bands of
derros furtively mine the crater f loor, hauling away carts
of the black sludge that seeps into their mineshafts. The
derro savants form this goo into constructs that share
many of the abilities of clay golems.
High Ilvarandin
The heart of Ilvarandin is surrounded by miles of deserted
buildings of the Azlanti style. Few venture along these
streets. Those who dare return possessed by intellect
devourers, and seek to lure others to their doom. Unlike
the outer Vault, High Ilvarandin is bustling and full of
life, a vibrant city within a city.
8
Ilvarandin
The monsters and beasts on the outskirts of High
Ilvarandin are rarely what they seem. Vigilant intellect
devourers patrol the area in stolen f lesh, with giant vermin
being a particular favorite. Even the river is guarded by
dire cave crocodiles, elasmosauruses, and a pair of water
orms—intellect devourers all. Few uninvited ships survive
to reach the docks of High Ilvarandin.
Over the course of thousands of years, the intellect
devourers have spun countless dweomers over the city
to free their homeland from decay. No corpse rots in
High Ilvarandin, nor do the bodies stolen by the intellect
devourers. Some favored bodies have been worn for decades
or even centuries. As a consequence, an aura of moderate
necromancy radiates throughout High Ilvarandin.
The rising threat of Denebrum moved the intellect
devourers to raze the buildings south of High Ilvarandin.
A wall 30 feet tall stands in their place, overlooking
more than a thousand yards of cleared ground and
rubble. The northern side of the city is unwalled, as
the river Irikusk is trusted as a f inal bastion against
assaults from the north.
Archive of Ages: Part museum and part mausoleum, the
Archive of Ages was built as a monument to the glory of the
intellect devourers. Its labyrinthine rooms and halls are
filled with the art, writings, and relics of their conquests.
Countless stuffed and preserved bodies grace its galleries,
including many from species now extinct. The upper
reaches store moldering tomes and scrolls, knowledge
gleaned by 10,000 years of body-thieving. Many are long
lost to the surface; some date back to before the Age of
Darkness. The curator and chief historian of the museum,
Caerilant, has lost favor in Ilvarandin, and may soon be
stripped of its status.
Bathhouse: Each bath in this grand marble building
features a unique blend of perfumes and minerals.
Temperatures range from scalding hot to icy cold. Outside
are grand pavilions, outdoor springs, and a beautiful
sculpture garden. Vegepygmies and enslaved salamanders
staff the bathhouse, overseen by furnace-keeper
Laerxniyzon. The bathhouse hosts regular bacchanals,
often degenerating into ribald debauchery and brawls
once the drink runs low.
Coliseum: In better days, the blood-soaked sands
of the coliseum held all manner of lethal games, with
intellect devourers both as spectators and participants.
The shortage of slaves has put an end to most games, with
would-be victims of the arena now destined for the feasting
hall or the battle against Denebrum instead. Arena master
Dakreyos schemes to claim the feasting hall’s slaves for his
own, and seeks to eliminate his hated rival, Ralnisham.
Feasting Hall: Always redolent of spices and roast
meat, the feasting hall of High Ilvarandin holds more
than 500 guests. The proprietor Ralnisham changes
bodies like clothing, favoring gorgeous specimens and
stunning garb. The fare of the feasting hall varies daily.
Sapient creatures are a particular favorite, strapped to
the tables and consumed organ by organ, their suffering
prolonged by the intellect devourers’ healing powers.
The hall’s extensive underground rooms are more
dungeon than larder.
Grand Spire: This graceful obelisk of pink-veined
marble towers over High Ilvarandin, perhaps the tallest
such structure in the entire city. No windows or doors
pierce its exterior, but from inside the city can be seen
as though through glass. Mounted inside at the spire’s
apex is a potent artifact known as a dream lens—a device
capable of capturing a dreaming mortal’s mind and
providing a gateway through which an intellect devourer
may enter a drugged host’s skull from a vast distance.
Tiluatchek is often found at work in his laboratory near
the spire’s apex.
Ossuary: An unimaginable tangle of bones f ills this
charnel pit, which is home to more than a hundred ghouls
and ghasts. Strong resistance sends them cowering,
High Ilvarandin
CE large city
Corruption +1; Crime +3; Economy +4; Law +2; Lore +4;
Society +2
Qualities insular, notorious, prosperous, racially intolerant (all
but intellect devourers), strategic location
Danger +20
Demographics
Government magical
Population 15,500 (12,000 intellect devourers, 2,000
vegepygmies, 1,500 other) plus 11,500 host bodies (2,500
humans, 2,000 drow, 1,500 duergar, 1,000 elves, 1,000
morlocks, 1,000 skum, 500 derros, 500 dwarves, 500 orcs,
1,000 other)
Notable NPCs
Arena Master Dakreyos (CE intellect devourer fighter 8
with male advanced gug host body)
Bereshkhani (CE male ghast alchemist 15)
Furnace-Keeper Laerxniyzon (CE intellect devourer rogue 8
with male azer* fighter 7 host body)
Historian Caerilant (CE intellect devourer sorcerer 10 with
female elf monk 9 host body)
Lens-Keeper Tiluatchek (CE intellect devourer sorcerer 12
with male human fighter 5/barbarian 5 host body)
Lord Feaster Ralnisham (CE intellect devourer sorcerer 12
with various host bodies)
Marketplace
Base Value 13,600 gp; Purchase Limit 100,000 gp;
Spellcasting 8th
Minor Items 4d4; Medium Items 3d4; Major Items 2d4
* See Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2.
9
1
yapping back to their warrens. One particularly ancient
ghast named Bereshkhani, exiled a century ago from
Nemret Noktoria, knows much of the secret ways of
Ilvarandin. It was with his aid that the intellect devourers
perfected the sinister drug known as (see page 11).
was a true paradise where one could seek immortality
and perpetual youth. His consumption by the intellect
devourer Tiluatchek (who has since moved on to other
bodies) was a slow and gradual process that laid much
of the groundwork for this magical invasion of dreams.
Eventually, the PCs should discover that those who
take the midnight milk have similar dreams of strange
subterranean cities, and after defeating a guild of thieves
or ghouls responsible for spreading the stuff through
their home town, should realize that the drug’s source
lies deep below the earth.
The Ilvarandin Campaign
High Ilvarandin faces extermination. The neothelids have
encroached on outer Ilvarandin for centuries, and their
control now stretches across the banks of the Irikusk.
More than anything, the intellect devourers need
bodies to triumph against the worms, the stronger
and more capable the better. Centuries of war
have stretched the intellect devourers’ capacity to
replace bodies to the breaking point. But the ruling
caste draws close to their greatest triumph, a plan
to swell their ranks with tens of thousands of
newborn intellect devourers. With artifacts
called dream lenses and a magical drug
called midnight milk, they have developed
a way to harvest new bodies from the
surface world with harrowing efficiency.
Spread by spies and allies on the surface,
midnight milk is taking root among the
intellectuals and upper crust of Cheliax,
Nisroch, and Varisia. Midnight milk
brings euphoric dreams of subterranean
vistas and impossible places. With
repeated exposure, the dreamer’s
roaming mind reaches the lost city of
Ilvarandin. Here, an intellect devourer
may insinuate itself into the dreaming
mind. In time, this psychic parasite
consumes the victim’s brain, allowing
the intellect devourer to transport itself
from the depths below directly into the addict’s skull.
These intellect devourers then use their new bodies to
spread midnight milk to new hosts, eventually sending new
soldiers with their intellect devourer hosts back into the
dark below to join the war.
Medium-Level Adventures
A mid-level Ilvarandin campaign may focus on the
journey to the Mute Metropolis itself. The passage
to Ilvarandin may well take several months to
uncover and traverse. The intellect devourers
themselves travel down through the three
Darklands realms via various routes, but
keep a secret base of operations in the
city of Umberweb. The PCs may uncover
one such route, or they may f ind their
own path through Darklands.
Once the PCs reach Ilvarandin, they
can select any one of the countless
buildings in the city’s outskirts as a
base of operations, but will likely need to
first clear it out of whatever monstrous
denizens dwell within. The best hope of
long-term security is one of the many
small settlements in Ilvarandin. The
mongrelfolk and svirfneblin are most
inclined to take in friendly strangers,
but duergar or drow might consider
harboring a capable band in hopes of
gaining assistance in their own plots and schemes.
The demands of adventuring may lead the PCs to
Duskport in search of trade; its seedy docks provide
resources not readily available elsewhere, such as capable
spellcasters and markets where PCs might acquire
expensive goods and magic items.
Low-Level Adventures
High-Level Adventures
Ilvarandin is no place for low-level characters, but the
introduction of midnight milk into a surface society
provides an excellent way to introduce new adventures to
the intellect devourers and the Mute Metropolis. Rumors
may reach the PCs of a new drug on the streets called
midnight milk. As they investigate drug dens and crime
syndicates, it becomes clear that the drug is becoming a
favorite among not only the nobles, but among soldiers
as well. Eventually, the PCs should uncover Vumeshki’s
poem “Ilvarandin.” One of the drug’s earliest victims,
Vumeshki spent many years convinced that Ilvarandin
Only seasoned adventurers should dare to venture into
High Ilvarandin itself. The streets around High Ilvarandin
are patrolled by intellect devourers clad in monstrous
f lesh, as are the waters of the River Irikusk. Travel beneath
the ground or through the sky above offers the safest
approach to the intellect devourer stronghold.
Venturing into High Ilvarandin is perilous, and even
carefully disguised parties won’t remain undiscovered
for long. While in the inner city, the PCs should uncover
the full scope of the intellect devourer’s plot to convert
10
Ilvarandin
High Level
thousands of surface dwellers into unwilling host soldiers
for the war against the worms of Denebrum.
To truly end the threat of Ilvarandin, the PCs must
remove or destroy the dream lens, the artifact allowing
the invasion into Golarion’s dreaming minds. The lens is
mounted in a tall spire at the center of High Ilvarandin,
with strange golems and arcane countermeasures
guarding the way. It is watched over by Tiluatchek
himself, the intellect devourer most responsible for the
spread of midnight milk. The exact method for destroying
the dream lens is left to the GM to devise.
d%
Result
Avg. CR Source
1–12
1 purple worm
12
Bestiary 230
13–20 1d4 elder earth elementals
13
Bestiary 123
21–28 2d4 vrocks
13
Bestiary 69
29–38 1 adult umbral dragon
14
Bestiary 2 102
39–53 2d6 intellect devourers in
host bodies*
14+
Bestiary 180
54–63 1 worm that walks
14
Bestiary 2 286
64–73 1d10 gugs
15
Bestiary 2 151
74–83 1d6 ropers
15
Bestiary 237
84–95 4d3 advanced seugathi
led by 1 neothelid
16
Bestiary 2 243 and Bestiary 214
96–100 1 shoggoth
19
Bestiary 249
* Host bodies of CR 2–8, 25% chance leader is an 8th-level sorcerer.
Random Encounters
Low Level
d%
Result
Avg. CR
1–5
2d4 duergar
2
6–10 1 cockroach swarm
2
11–18 2d6 drow
3
19–23 1 gelatinous cube
3
24–30 1d4 svirfneblin scouts
3
31–39 1d6 vegepygmies
3
40–46 1d3 morlock scavengers
4
47–53 1d6 jinkins or vexgits
4
54–61 1d4 derro scouts
5
62–69 2d4 ghouls
5
70–74 1 ochre jelly
5
75–83 2d4 troglodyte raiders plus
d3–1 monitor lizards
6
84–88 1d2 basidironds
6
89–94 1d4 id oozes (see gray ooze) 6
95–100 1 lurker above
7
* See Misfit Monsters Redeemed.
Source
Bestiary 117
Bestiary 2 58
Bestiary 114–115
Bestiary 138
Bestiary 261
Bestiary 273
Bestiary 209
Bestiary 2 142, 145
Bestiary 70
Bestiary 146
Bestiary 218
Midnight Milk
The strange and powerful drug known as midnight milk
is the cornerstone of Ilvarandin’s most recent attempt
to bolster its armies against the worms of Denebrum.
Distilled from the excretions and seepings of vast
mu spores that f loat in the skies above the Midnight
Mountains, midnight milk has a strange connection to the
powerful and alien dreams these immense slumbering
monsters spend the majority of their time pursuing.
By distilling the f luids and mixing them with other
alchemical elixirs and catalysts, the intellect devourers
and their ghast ally Bereshkhani have concocted an
elixir capable of allowing an intellect devourer to use its
body thief ability at great range. The only tricky part—
getting the targets addicted to the stuff, for it takes time
for midnight milk to work its unwelcome magic upon the
dreaming mind.
Midnight milk is imbibed through the mouth. A single
dose is enough to send most drinkers into a deep sleep,
during which the user experiences very vivid dreams. All
of these dreams are superficially similar, starting with a
sensation of an endless fall into what seems a bottomless pit
that eventually reveals itself to be a fall downward toward a
vast range of subterranean mountains lit by strange moonlike shapes f loating near the vast cavern roof.
If the dreaming victim dreams long enough (with
successive doses of midnight milk, each dream lasts longer
and allows the dreamer to travel farther), they travel
ghostlike to the west and eventually reach Ilvarandin,
at which point the dreaming mind “lands” in the body
of a creature that dwells there—typically a troglodyte,
drow, duergar, derro, mongrelman, or morlock, but
sometimes stranger things like driders or gugs or
ropers, or even black puddings or purple worms. The
“dreamer” experiences his explorations of Ilvarandin
unaware of the fact that he’s in a strange new body,
Bestiary 267, 194
Bestiary 28
Bestiary 166
MMR* 50
Medium Level
d%
Result
Avg. CR
1–6
1 black pudding
7
7–14 2d4 drow warrior 1 and
1d3 drow noble cleric 3
7
15–22 2d4 morlocks
7
23–30 3d4 derros*
8
31–36 1 giant slug
8
37–46 1 intellect devourer in host body 8
47–54 4d3 skum
8
55–60 1 titan centipede
9
61–68 1d4+1 urdefhans on skavelings 9
69–74 1d6 fungal mounds**
10
75–80 3d4 gargoyles
10
81–88 1 young roper
11
89–94 2d4 seugathi
11
95–100 1 purple worm
12
* Including 1 derro sorcerer 4.
** Variant or new monster detailed in this chapter.
Bestiary 35
Bestiary 114–115
Bestiary 209
Bestiary 70
Bestiary 254
Bestiary 180
Bestiary 253
Bestiary 2 53
Bestiary 2 276, 42
page 12
Bestiary 137
Bestiary 237, 295
Bestiary 2 243
Bestiary 230
11
1
but has no control over his actions since he’s basically
just watching and experiencing the actions of his host
body, and when he f inally wakes remembers the dreams
as vague memories. The addictive quality of the drug
colors these memories and makes his stay in Ilvarandin
feel like a visit to paradise.
Yet the truth is far more insidious, for these experiences
are not just dreams. The user’s slumbering mind actually
leaves his body, seeks out a denizen of Ilvarandin, and
enjoys that body’s experiences for a time. The dream lens
acts as a strange spiritual magnet, drawing the dreamer
deep into Ilvarandin where, it becomes increasingly likely
on successive visits that the dreamer’s mind inhabits a
body already inhabited by an intellect devourer.
An intellect devourer automatically notices the
arrival of a dreaming mind in its already shared body.
If the intellect devourer can reach the dream lens before
the dreamer awakens, it can abandon its current host
body to merge with the dreaming creature’s mind—
when the dreamer awakens, the intellect devourer
travels with it and immediately devourers the dreamer’s
brain, proceeding from that point forward as if it had
successfully used its body thief ability on the victim. At
this point, the intellect devourer is free to use its new
body on the surface as it wills—most quickly seek out
other cells of intellect devourers active in the area to
secure gentle repose spells to keep their new host bodies
fresh, or to volunteer their aid in spreading the midnight
milk further into society.
The following rules for midnight milk follow those
presented for drugs, as detailed on pages 236–237 of the
GameMastery Guide.
with no ill effect. If the intellect devourer reaches the
dream lens in time, the intellect devourer can attempt to
use its body thief ability on the dreamer—see page 180 of
the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary for rules. If the attempt fails,
the dreamer awakes with a start with blood pouring from
eyes, mouth, nostrils, and ears, but no real memories of
what caused the incredible pain.
Variant Monsters
The Mute Metropolis is a veritable menagerie of strange
monsters and bizarre creatures, for the intellect devourers
are fond of importing exotic bodies to raise as hosts.
Yet one strange variant is a native of the region. The
fungal swamps of Ilvarandin that cake the shores of the
Irikusk River are home to a variety of shambling mound
composed of mold and mushroom rather than actual
plant matter. Many of these shambling mounds carry
symbiotic masses of dangerous fungi such as yellow
mold or even green slime that has adapted to not feed
on the fungus itself.
Rulers of Ilvarandin
The rulers of High Ilvarandin are powerful intellect
devourers—most of which are arcane spellcasters.
Status as a ruler of Ilvarandin is achieved when no
less than 400 intellect devourers cede their authority
to another in a process they call melding. As many as
20 intellect devourers rule in Ilvarandin at any given
time. One of the most powerful in the city, Lens-Keeper
Tiluatchek, oversees the harvest and production of
midnight milk and currently favors wearing the Ulfen
warrior Sigmar (human f ighter 5/barbarian 5, Pathfinder
RPG GameMastery Guide 263), but has hidden away
numerous other bodies for specialty needs, including
those of a storm giant, an umbral dragon, a succubus
assassin, and the surfacer poet Vumeshki, author of
Songs at Sun’s Ebb and one of the f irst to succumb to
midnight milk.
Midnight Milk
Type drug, ingested; Addiction moderate, Fortitude DC 16
Price 50 gp
Effects 1 hour; fatigue, plus the user takes a –4 penalty on all
saving throws made to resist sleep effects. If the user falls
asleep while under the effects of midnight milk, he dreams
vividly; these dreams last for 1 hour per dose of midnight
milk taken in the past month (including this one). Upon
awakening, the user is revitalized as if he had enjoyed a full
8 hours of sleep.
Damage 1d2 Wis damage. While the dream lens is active in
Ilvarandin, there’s a 1% chance each time a user takes
the drug that he ends up in a body already used by an
intellect devourer—this chance increases by 1% for each
previous dose of midnight milk the user has taken. If the
dreamer is unfortunate enough to end up sharing a host
body with an intellect devourer, the intellect devourer
immediately makes its way toward the dream lens—this
takes 1d10 hours. If the dream ends before the intellect
devourer reaches the dream lens, the dreamer awakens
Lens-Keeper Tiluatchek
XP 51,200
CR 15
Intellect devourer sorcerer 12
CE Small aberration
Init +11; Senses blindsight 60 ft., detect magic; Perception +21
Defense
AC 27, touch 18, flat-footed 20 (+7 Dex, +5 natural, +4 shield,
+1 size)
hp 233 (20 HD; 8d8+12d6+140+15 temporary)
Fort +12, Ref +13, Will +16
Defensive Abilities invisibility, mirror image; DR 10/adamantine
and magic; Immune fire; Resist cold 20, electricity 20, sonic
20; SR 23
Weaknesses vulnerability to protection from evil
12
Ilvarandin
Spell, Silent Spell, Spell Focus (enchantment), Still Spell,
Toughness, Weapon Finesse
Skills Bluff +40, Craft (alchemy) +17, Diplomacy +22, Disguise
+29, Fly +20, Knowledge (arcana) +15, Knowledge (history)
+15, Knowledge (local) +12, Perception +21, Sense Motive
+20, Spellcraft +22, Stealth +23, Use Magic Device +25
Languages Orvian, Undercommon (cannot speak); telepathy
100 ft.
SQ bloodline arcana, long limbs (+10 ft.), unusual anatomy
(25%)
Gear (only if encountered in a host body) ring of protection
+2, rod of splendor, unguent of timelessness (2), 5,000 gp of
luxury goods
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 4 claws +20 (1d4+1)
Special Attacks acidic ray (1d6+6 acid, 12/day), body thief,
sneak attack +3d6
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +17)
Constant—detect magic
At will—confusion (DC 23, single target only), daze
monster (DC 21, no HD limit), inflict serious wounds
(DC 22), invisibility, reduce size (as reduce person but
self only)
3/day—cure moderate wounds, globe of invulnerability
Sorcerer Spells Known (CL 12th; concentration +21)
6th (4/day)—mass suggestion (DC 27)
5th (6/day)—cone of cold (DC 24), feeblemind (DC 26), teleport
4th (7/day)—black tentacles, charm monster (DC 25), fire
shield, phantasmal killer (DC 23)
3rd (8/day)—fireball (DC 22), fly, gentle repose, hold person
(DC 24), nondetection, tongues
2nd (8/day)—bear’s endurance, eagle’s splendor, false life,
mirror image, scorching ray, see invisibility
1st (8/day)—charm person (DC 22), disguise self (DC 20),
enlarge person, magic missile, shield, unseen servant
0 (at will)—arcane mark, dancing lights, detect poison,
ghost sound (DC 19), mage hand, mending, open/close,
prestidigitation, resistance
Bloodline Aberrant
Tactics
Before Combat Tiluatchek keeps false life active at all times.
If expecting a fight, it casts bear’s endurance, eagle’s
splendor, invisibility, mirror image, resistance, and
shield. It always prefers to fight in a host body rather
than its natural form.
During Combat If not already in a host, it tries to use
its body thief ability. It favors neutralizing threats
with enchantments over direct conflict. In its
natural form, Tiluatchek cannot speak, and must
use Silent Spell to cast.
Morale If reduced below 50 hit points, Tiluatchek
teleports away and devises a new plan of attack.
Base Statistics If not given time to cast the spells listed
in its Before Combat section, Tiluatchek’s stats are:
AC 23, flat-footed 16; hp 178; Fort +11, Ref +12,
Will +16; acidic ray 10/day; concentration and
save DCs reduced by 2; Con 19, Cha 24; Bluff
+38, Diplomacy +20, Disguise +27, Use Magic
Device +23
Statistics
Str 12, Dex 25, Con 23, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 28
Base Atk +12; CMB +12; CMD 29
Feats Combat Casting, Empower Spell, Eschew
Materials, Extend Spell, Greater Spell Focus
(enchantment), Improved Initiative, Quicken
13
1
Kho
“In the time before our fathers, before Kuta wrestled the lion,
the people of the lower hills were visited by people from the sky.
They were not the sky people of the Doorway—for you know
that story, and how Old-Mage Jatembe defeated the King of the
Biting Ants—but real people, humans who flew in a great city
torn from the earth. The hill people rushed to meet them, yet
the flying city continued on beyond the mountains.
“And then something happened. The sky roared, and lit like fire.
When next the city appeared, it was as a falling star, crashing
down among the great peaks. Our people were frightened, but
in our hearts we knew the truth: the sky people had stolen
their city from the earth. And the earth had reclaimed it.”
—M’delo, Uomoto storyteller
14
Kho
T
History
he glory of the world, a magical marvel still spoken
of in hushed whispers, Kho was at once the master
and the envy of every place it roamed. Its gleaming
crystal towers and domes sparkled and shone in the light of
sun and moon, a beacon signaling the power and ambition of
humanity and its magic at the dawning of the great empires.
The crown jewel in the Shory Empire, the city of Kho rose
to heights undreamed of, but for all of its majesty and pride,
it is remembered less for its rise than for its fall. More than
6,000 years ago, the Soaring City fell to earth and smote its
ruin upon the unforgiving land beneath. The light of Kho
was extinguished, and its name became a byword against
hubris, an object lesson on how great a fall could be.
Millennia later, the ruins of Kho lie shattered, with much
of the city pulverized, half-buried, and overgrown in the
Barrier Wall mountains northeast of the Mwangi Expanse.
Their location long since forgotten save in the secret
histories of the wise or among the few tribes and treasurehunters who comb the nearby mountains, the tumbledown
remains of Kho and its shattered crystal structures retain
their power to amaze. Even broken, cracked, askew, and
cloaked in verdant greenery, their beauty is weathered
but undimmed, accented by a verdant wildness. Yet few
brave the Mwangi Expanse or Osirion’s scorching deserts
for mere beauty. It is magic that draws explorers to Kho,
the mysteries and relics of a bygone civilization, and the
eldritch secrets of its fraying but enduring enchantments.
And for these things, explorers risk all.
Kho was founded roughly 7,000 years ago by the Shory
Empire, and in its heyday was the greatest of Shory cities
and the first of their legendary f lying sky citadels. Through
magic lost to modern mages, they lifted their great city
and its foundations from the rock beneath it and sent it
soaring into the air, climbing even above the clouds. This
magnificent magic was duplicated in cities across Shory,
until they had created an aerial empire that looked down
upon all others. Removing themselves from the concerns
of land-bound nations, and considering themselves
both literally and figuratively above the concerns of the
“crawlers” beneath them, the Shory grew mighty and
haughty. They explored across oceans and far continents,
defying those who would deny them passage, conducting
their magical experiments with impunity.
The cause of Kho’s downfall is a mystery to sages. Some
suspect rebellion or civil war among the Shory archmages,
or between them and the lower classes, perhaps resulting
in an act of magical sabotage. Others maintain it was an
importune summoning or planar exploration that resulted
in some sort of invasion or spatial rupture. The general
consensus is that Kho’s fall occurred sometime during
the Age of Destiny, with the most popular theory claiming
that the city’s fall coincided with the terrible march of
the Tarrasque, which destroyed Ninshabur and left a scar
of desolation across the world. Regardless of what was
ultimately responsible, it seems likely that the arrogant
Shory, unused to being overmatched and unable to escape
to the lower stratosphere, were caught by surprise.
Whatever the cause, one thing is certain: the mighty city
of Kho plummeted to earth amid the lower peaks of the
Barrier Wall, near a natural break in the range that in later
years would come to be called the Kho-Rarne Pass. Many
were killed in the disaster, and when the dust settled, only
a few were left alive. Those aeromancers who were left sought
succor from their Shory brethren, using their magic to call
to the other sky cities. Yet only a few managed to retain
their status; the majority were permanently disgraced
by the city’s fall, forced by their adopted sky citadels to
perform public and menial labor as penance for shattering
the myth of Shory invincibility. The lesser Shory of Kho,
those without significant magic of their own, were mostly
left to fend for themselves, and assimilated into the nearby
Osirian and Mwangi populaces. Their names and histories
were lost or discarded, and within scant generations, the
displaced Shory of Kho ceased to exist.
The Shory Empire as a whole fared little better—one by
one the other cities were overcome by threats internal and
external, succumbing to plagues and rebellion, crushed by
strange beings released in the relentless quest for power,
or simply disappearing into parts unknown. Ulduvai,
the last Shory city on record, is rumored to have met its
Appearance
At first glance, the ruined city of Kho hardly looks like a
city at all. Its high, cleft valley is overgrown with verdant
foliage more characteristic of the lower jungles, though
broken in places by patches of scrub meadow. Damp
breezes carry a hint of plumeria and hanging orchid, and
a narrow river meanders across the valley f loor, tumbling
over a cascading fall from a high shelf at the valley’s
eastern end and dancing amid rocks and rapids along the
valley f loor. When shrouded in mist or low cloud, Kho is
indistinguishable from a hundred other jungle valleys,
but in the bright light of the sun or stars, the city comes
alive. The meadows dance with sparkling rainbows from
countless faceted fragments, while hummocks and ridges
across the valley f loor glow with captured light, revealing
immense cracked domes and fallen towers of lambent
crystal worn smooth with the ages. Monolithic towers
lean drunkenly against the valley walls at its eastern end,
pockmarked with fractures and long-vanished windows
hung with curtains of clinging creepers, while fallen
spires serve as natural bridges across the river. In a few
places, weathered fragments of the ancient city remain,
broken and canted against the valley wall but still showing
traces of the masterful architecture of ancient Shory.
15
21
Kho
0
UPPER
CITY
CISTERN
MAJOR
LOWER
CITY
DOMES OF THE
POLYMATUM
FIELDS OF
GLASS
SUNSET
TOWERS
16
750
feet
1500
Kho
end in the depths of central Garund, perhaps searching
for information in the ruins of Kho that might have held
clues to the empire’s salvation. The star of the Shory shone
bright indeed, but less than a thousand years after Kho
first soared across the sky, the Shory civilization was no
more than a memory.
daylight but otherwise lurk below ground, skirmishing
with degenerate clans of morlocks—perhaps descendants
of Shory refugees from Kho—led by the mad priestess
Xiuli Cachu (CE female morlock cleric of Lamashtu 11).
The most sinister inhabitants of Kho dwell in the Domes
of the Polymatum. From here, a cabal of 10 leukodaemons
(Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 68) ranges across the Mwangi,
harvesting and spreading myriad exotic pestilences. They
are served by a small army of corrupted but deviously
intelligent rat-slaves bred from ancient Shory experimental
stock. The leukodaemons are led by Thanyachani and
Shanesja, a pair of astradaemons (Bestiary 2 63), soul
devourers who have ensured that these ruins where
thousands perished are little haunted by restless spirits of
the dead.
Residents
The Uomoto tribes of the foothills below the ruins of Kho
represent the nearest humanoid settlement to the ancient
city, whose former residents and culture have long since
gone to dust. As nature has reclaimed much of the city,
animals and plants common to the Mwangi highland and
lowland jungles have f lourished, but they are not alone.
The self-proclaimed ruler of Kho is Khurram abol
Ghasem (CN male advanced noble marid ranger 6), the
shahzada and patriarch of a marid clan that migrated here
after the city’s fall through the ruptured elemental seals
upon the planar portals that delivered an endless supply of
fresh water to Kho’s Cistern Major. The cistern is located
in the largest fragment of the city to remain substantially
intact; its waters empty through a myriad of cracked
reservoirs and fractured aqueducts to form the headwaters
of the Uomoto River, which f lows through and out of the
valley. The marids claim this fragment and the river as
their own and tend it as a fabulous garden and palace,
enhanced and shaped by their powers of illusion.
Not all of the city’s residents arrived after its fall, however.
Chief among these are the derhii (see page 23), winged apesoldiers that once served the Shory. Those away from the
city or able to escape its fall found their erstwhile masters
f led or slain (with some derhii hastening the demise of
any survivors), and when the wrecked city had settled,
they claimed the highest surviving monoliths as their
aeries. More than 400 derhii now hunt the surrounding
mountains. Most ignore the imperious genies, though
some have taken up their ancestral vocation of servantsoldiers in exchange for the rewards the genies can offer.
The shattered crystal towers contain hidden dangers
of their own. Not only are the razor-sharp Fields of Glass
already perilous, but the malfunctioning magic of Kho
has caused the glassy shards to sprout underground into
filaments and veins of crystal, discovered centuries past
by a clan of xorns. The Vokthavaravat Cluster now numbers
more than 50 xorns and has taken up residence in the Sunset
Towers. Consuming these replicating crystal f ibers,
however, has gradually transformed the xorns into crystal
themselves, and they now hunger to aff lict others with
their vitrifying virus and then devour the glassy remains.
Fatal to most beings, the strange plague turns earth
elementals and other earth-based creatures into infectious
crystal-spawn, which are either adopted into the cluster
or destroyed as rivals to it. The xorns roam the surface in
Relations and Trade
The ruins of Kho bear little resemblance— either
physically or in regard to its inhabitants—to the utopian
aerial enclave of its past, yet the legacies of the Shory still
linger in the creatures that call this place their home. The
human population of Kho has long since f led into the
surrounding mountains and jungle, mostly to their doom,
but their legacy remains in the nearby Uomoto villages of
Jianguji, Tsutai, Tafiq, and Abjit in the form of a surprising
number of sorcerers, especially of the arcane, destined,
and elemental bloodlines. The Uomoto consider the valley
a sacred site, taboo for them and dangerous to outsiders.
The Uomoto do not trade in relics from Kho, warning
strangers of curses should they be foolish enough to take
anything, but do not raise a hand against treasure-hunters
unless they bring recovered items back to the Uomoto
villages. The Uomoto’s belief is mostly superstition, but it
has proven true often enough that the taboo persists.
The Uomoto can sometimes be persuaded to lead
adventurers within sight of the city’s resting place, though
even the bravest of them usually only venture this far for
the purposes of making sacrifices. Among the closest
villages, outlaws and oathbreakers (including violators of
the taboo against entering the city) are sometimes taken
by the tribe and bound to the Stone of Sacrifice, offered
up upon a fallen monolith to appease the denizens of the
valley. For the right price, the Uomoto sometimes guide
strangers as far as the Stone, but no farther. Fearful of the
“shining stones that walk” and other strange denizens,
they venture into the valley only by night, and always travel
with torches in hand to ward off lurking morlocks, which
they call tuitele (“the light-haters”).
While the xorns and marids of Kho have little interest
in commerce with the outside world (though the marids
do trade with allies on the Plane of Water), the derhii
of Kho sometimes visit trade-fairs along the pass or in
lowland villages beyond the Uomoto’s lands, bartering
17
21
looted artifacts, magical trinkets, or even choice bits of
Shory craftsmanship, though they usually mislead buyers
as to the origin of their treasures. Travelers coming
from the east may encounter these derhii at the Osirian
fort of Aboul-Nasar (“the vulture’s roost”) at the crest of
Kho-Rarne Pass, where Akfirat Zouhair (N male human
rogue 6) maintains a small lodge for Osirian Pathfinders
venturing into the Mwangi Expanse. The derhii usually
trade for fine-quality weapons and armor, leather goods,
or sometimes wines or drugs such as pesh.
The leukodaemons of Kho also secretly trade their
plagueborn creations all over Golarion. These
are carried by their rats and wererats to
their malign customers, congealed and
distilled in pots and vials or incubated
within living hosts. Their prime
patrons are cultists of Urgathoa,
Ghlaunder, Apollyon, or CythV’sug looking for new strains of
infectious misery to unleash, but
the daemons are happy to sell to
anyone willing to pay.
large retinue of water mephits and elementals of all sizes,
the smaller as servitors and the larger as battle companions
or even mounts. The arrogant marids claim all of Kho, but
their rule stretches only as far as Iouri’s Cascade, where the
Cistern Major’s waters spill into the Lower City. There, the
marids create ever-changing liquid sculptures, vying to
shape and caress the f lowing water into the most elaborate
and fantastical patterns and even seemingly solid shapes,
thereby winning boasting rights over their fellows.
The marids share the Upper City with the derhii aeries of
the Monoliths, a set of high towers that survived Kho’s
fall mostly intact, though they were uprooted
from their foundations and settled vertically
against the valley’s southeastern wall,
stretching beyond the tops of the
encircling cliffs. Many monoliths
are not wholly solid, but rather
consist of level upon level of
chambers and halls stretching up
hundreds of paces, their windows
long shattered and swathed with
encroaching vines for much
of their height. Perhaps most
interesting to scholars are those
towers that bear enormous striations
along their lengths, deep furrows like
claw marks from some titanic predator.
Derhii family groups, usually led by a 5th-level
barbarian or ranger, claim adjacent layers of the towers
and defend their turf against rival derhii, but the various
groups unite against menaces that threaten all derhii. The
tribes have no true leader, instead meeting in tribal council
to decide matters of mutual interest, but the most powerful
leaders are Shanaca Anisoara (N female derhii ranger 9) and
Tonoyan Balasu (N female derhii barbarian 8).
The Domes of the Polymatum: The central valley is
dominated by the cracked remnants of Kho’s arcane
academies, now haunted by daemons who were once
bound but who broke free during the city’s fall. Here,
these deacons of disease brew and refine toxic sludges and
slurries in their vile f leshpots, crafting ever more virulent
strains of common ills or inventing new ones.
The daemons also specialize in the warping and
manipulation of life, having long ago spawned experimental
rats kept by the Shory and turned them into a slave race of
sentient dire rats called the hadi (see page 23). While most
hadi are simple minions, the inbred siblings Teffera and
Yilmaz (NE male and female hadi transmuter 8) are striving
to cultivate a master caste of their kind. The daemons’
army of sinister rat-soldiers is led by Naheed and Nahush
(NE male hadi rajwan barbarian 6), while their subtler
operations of smuggling and infiltration are orchestrated
by Uzma Desferal (NE female hadi tafen bard 7).
Sites of Interest
The Shory were famous for their love
of crystal and glass, which they crafted
stronger than stone. Many structures in
Kho remain partially intact, though most of
the city’s substructure collapsed and the surviving
upper buildings were often wholly or partly sheared off,
tumbling down the valley amid rubble from the crumbled
city and scored hillsides; they lie now half-buried beneath
the eroded detritus of 6,000 years.
The Upper City: The domain of the Ghasem marid clan,
this is the largest semi-intact section of Kho’s cityscape, and
even it lies along the hillside at a 30-degree angle. Vines,
trees, and fragrant blossoms grow from hanging gardens
tended by ooze mephits around the Plaza of Cesaire and its
cracked midnight blue tiles, while genie-bound derhii nest
in the broken towers. The lower levels are a bewildering
maze of slanting passages shrouded in permanent images
that change according to the genies’ whims. Water f lows
through many passages and through carved aqueducts
or even simple cracks and fissures, arising in a perpetual
f low from the planar gates within the vast Cistern Major at
the heart of the upper city.
The seat of the marids’ domain, the Cistern Major
is bedecked in fabulous illusory trappings celebrating
the glory of the shahzada and his court: his wife Zahra,
daughter Shireesha, and son-in-law Juqua (all CN noble
marids), as well as his personal priest Kaila (CN marid
cleric 9 of Gozreh) and more than a dozen of their common
cousins who come and go to the Plane of Water, as do a
18
Kho
The Lower City: The river is spanned to the north by the
Obelisk Bridge, a cracked and moss-covered fallen monolith
engraved with faded runes. This tower was once full of
residential chambers, and creatures walking across what
were once its vertical walls may fall through weakened
sections into the jagged rubble within (treat as spiked pit
traps or camouf laged spiked pit traps; see pages 420–421 of
the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook). Beyond the river is another
semi-intact cityscape that slid down and across the valley
f loor in the city’s fall. Called the Shadow Hill by the valley’s
other residents, this area is shunned because of a ruptured
planar gate that continues to sputter within its heart—an
unreliable portal to the Plane of Shadow. Those daring it
may lose their lives and souls, and be reborn as shadows.
While the dark spirits that dwell here fear the soul-devouring
astradaemons and binding by morlock cult-clerics, few dare
challenge them in their shadowy lair.
Most sinister and mysterious is the Pit of Endless Night.
Surrounded by the broken base of an ancient dome that
resembles a yawning maw with fangs of blackened glass,
the pit was created when one of Kho’s broken towers thrust
straight into the ground like an enormous spear, piercing
the valley’s bedrock and breaching a natural fissure into an
extensive cavern complex. Some of the river’s waters trickle
down this bore, which is still uncannily smooth where the
tower’s shell has endured, though its inner stonework has
largely gone to dust and ruin. Some visitors seeking the
Well of Axuma mistake this dark pit for the well—much to
their sorrow when they discover what lies in its depths.
Though not attached to the vast network known as
the Darklands, the fissures and cysts in the shattered
rock under the valley lead ever downward in a dizzying
corkscrew, intersected by countless maze-like tunnels
infested with morlocks descended from Kho’s survivors,
and even stranger beasts. The morlocks prowl the city’s
surviving under-warrens, skirmishing at times with the
daemon-bound hadi and the crystal xorns, though they
live a curious alternate existence with the latter; the xorns
haunt the ruins above by day while the morlocks cower in
darkness, but when the xorns retreat to their crystal caves
at night, the morlocks emerge aboveground.
The Fields of Glass: The western half of the valley was
not part of Kho’s impact crater, but the city’s fall produced
a slide zone that obliterated the former terrain. Erosion
and accretion have since built up a layer of fertile soil and
a loose, open cloud forest, teeming with life amid trees and
fruited meadows. In bright light, these glades are ablaze
with ref lected light, as shards of crystal embedded in the
ground (and growing filaments beneath, harvested by
hungry xorns) dazzle any creature traversing the area, also
acting as caltrops to those treading the ground. Uomoto
guides can show the PCs safe pathways, while others can
find them with a DC 20 Survival check per hour of travel.
The Stone of Sacrifice lies at the edge of the Lower City, and
is as far as the Uomoto will come to punish their criminals
or lead foolhardy outsiders into the valley.
At the far western end of the valley lie the Sunset Towers,
the once-proud Towers of the Sun sheared off their bases
and sent tumbling across the valley. Here they lie askew
like an immense pile of driftwood, heaped together at
radical angles and heavily draped with verdant greenery,
yet beneath the foliage, these tubular husks glow in the light
of the sun. The crystal xorns call this place Vokthavaravat;
here Arzuu Mandilawi (NE male elder crystal xorn rogue
4) rules the cluster from a honeycombed crystalline cyst
where five shattered towers ground together an age ago.
The Kho Campaign
Visitors to Kho must traverse the Mwangi Expanse to the
west or the deserts and mountains of Osirion to the east
just to reach it. Legendary even among scholars, relics and
tales of Kho can draw adventurers gradually toward it, so
that novices aren’t overwhelmed by its challenges.
Early use of Kho in a campaign requires laying a foundation
for later adventure. Fragmentary maps or mysterious
relics from its ancient civilization can draw parties to
the city, perhaps provided by allies or patrons such as
the Pathfinder Society or Aspis Consortium, who could
facilitate travel across Osirion to Aboul-Nasar or through
the Mwangi Expanse to the Uomoto villages.
For a hook that relies less on a simple lust for exploration,
the diseased minions of the leukodaemons provide an
excellent introduction. When plague or disease erupts
near the PCs’ base of operations, they might be enlisted
to discover the source of this sickness. Heal or Profession
(herbalist) checks can confirm the disease’s exotic
origins, and Knowledge (local) or Diplomacy checks to
gather information may locate similar outbreaks in other
communities. Investigation might then lead PCs to blackmarket dealers who also trade in Shory antiquities. One
path here could lead to Luana Sipress (LE female human
natural wererat rogue 3), a local wererat with a nest of hadi
underlings (see page 23), who are spreading the tainted
produce of their leukodaemon masters, and from there to
her suppliers in Sargava and eventually to Kho itself.
Alternatively, the trail could lead back to Baddour (NG
male derhii), a trader who frequents Aboul-Nasar. He is
simply dealing in Shory relics without being aware that
they have been secretly laced with infectious toxins by the
daemons and their minions. There is no conspiracy to crack
here, simply a common association that all victims of the
tainted goods have recently acquired Shory artifacts. The
PCs must trace these relics back to their source to discover
whether there is a nefarious plot at work, or perhaps even
19
21
a curse. When the PCs confront Baddour, he is remorseful
that his trade has resulted in such harm, and could guide
them to Kho and secure a friendly audience with his clan.
palaces and healing pools on the Plane of Water as their
guests. There, the PCs might be caught up in a contest of
succession manipulated by Markish Aghayare (NE male
devourer), a marid shahzada risen in undeath as a devourer
and now sowing corruption among his living kin.
PCs who vanquish the daemons might also discover that
shadows have boiled forth from their “shadow city” under
Sarra Skepekaris (CE female greater shadow sorcerer 7),
the Shadow Princess. Now that the astradaemons are gone,
the shadows have laid siege to the other dwellers of Kho,
picking off any living creatures they can find and swelling
their shadow host to trigger an umbral apocalypse. In
order to stop them, the PCs must destroy the shadow host
and seal the gate to the Plane of Shadow, destroying the
Mwangi necromancer-lich Trexima Butoi (NE human
male lich necromancer 16), who raised the shadow host.
Another menace worthy of drawing high-level PCs
to the city is that of Vehanezhad (LE female blue dragon
wyrm), a blue dragon transformed into living crystal by
the xorns’ strange curse. The dragon tracked the crystal
xorn that infected her to Kho and then assumed leadership
of the Vokthavaravat Cluster, claiming all of Kho as her
domain. The marids are being crushed in her ascension to
power, and most of the derhii and morlocks f lee or submit
to her. Worst of all, using a hidden laboratory left behind
by the daemons, Vehanezhad soon discovers a way to make
her brilliant pestilence affect creatures that don’t have the
earth subtype. Whether summoned by rumors of her rise
or impacted directly by the strange new plague, PCs who
want to defeat Vehanezhad may need to rally the surviving
marids and derhii to destroy the crystal dragon, her newly
bound servants, and her crystalline minions before she
unleashes a transmogrifying pandemic.
PCs arriving near Kho from the Mwangi Jungle first
encounter the Uomoto villages—and indeed, studying that
obscure culture may be an adventure hook of its own for
PC scholars. Once there, parties may have to bargain with
the chiefs for the right to visit the sacred city. A chief might
demand a difficult-to-acquire gift that requires a side
adventure into the jungle, or a service like hunting down a
dangerous local monster or renegade Uomoto sorcerer.
Alternatively, the PCs might arrive in Aboul-Nasar
after being sent there to investigate an ominous lapse in
communication. PCs coming to Kho from Aboul-Nasar
with a derhii guide might arrange aerial transport back
there to rest and resupply in between expeditions into
the lost city. The derhii can provide safe haven, but they
might also be ambushed by rival derhii who resent their
intrusion, and who are likely to try to kill the PCs or
capture and sell them to the marids as slaves.
Once within Kho, the PCs are likely to be intrigued
by the various factions of the city. They find the marids
aloof and the leukodaemons homicidal, but the derhii may
accompany them to choice scavenging grounds, leading to
a confrontation with crystal xorns by day or morlocks by
night. The PCs may have to skirmish with raiding parties
from both as they search out troves of still-viable magic
items or hidden cysts where the leukodaemons and hadi
concoct their tainted treasures.
PCs seeking a permanent solution to Kho’s viral output
may decide to cleanse the under-warrens of the Domes of
the Polymatum of the leukodaemons and their filth, but
constant interference by morlocks and crystal xorns may
necessitate a truce with one or both groups, which can
also allow underground access to the well-warded Domes
through secret ways. However, in this situation a highranking cleric from whichever group is friendly might
betray the PCs, leading them into an ambush of daemons,
oozes, hadi, and worse.
Random Encounters
Low Level
d%
1–7
8–14
15–21
22–28
29–34
35–40
41–46
47–58
59–64
65–70
71–76
77–82
83–88
89–94
95–100
Daemons are always a dangerous unknown, and any
number of good-aligned outsiders or religious officials
might dispatch the PCs to cleanse Kho of its daemonic
taint, should they learn of it. Even if the PCs don’t set off
to the city for that purpose, continued exploration and
skirmishing in the city eventually draws the astradaemons
into the fray, and destroying them and the horrid
laboratories of the leukodaemons erases their blight from
Kho forever. Should the PCs eradicate the daemons, the
marids welcome the heroes, inviting them to their pleasure
20
Result
1 venomous snake
1d4 hadi*
1 bat swarm
1 constrictor snake
1 Small animated object
1 hadi tafen*
1 shadow 1d4 boars
1 army ant swarm
1 derhii* 1d4 dire apes
1 frothing ooze*
1d4 water mephitis
1 girallon
1 wyvern
Avg. CR
1
1
2
2
2
2
3
4
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
Source
Bestiary 255
page 23
Bestiary 30
Bestiary 255
Bestiary 14
page 23
Bestiary 245
Bestiary 36
Bestiary 16
page 23
Bestiary 17
page 23
Bestiary 203
Bestiary 154
Bestiary 282
Kho
Medium Level
d%
1–6
7–12
13–18
19–24
25–30
31–36
37–42
43–48
49–54
55–60
61–66
67–72
73–78
79–84
85–90
91–100
Result
Avg. CR
1 hadi tafen* and 1d6 rat swarms 6
1 umber jelly*
6
1d6 monitor lizards
6
1d6 morlocks
6
1d6 shadows
6
2d6 hadi rajwans*
7
1 crystal xorn*
7
1d4 manticores
7
1d4 Large animated objects
7
1d8 centipede swarms
8
1 deadfall scorpion
8
3–12 Medium animated objects 8
1 leukodaemon
9
1 marid and 1d6 water mephitis 10
1 marid and 2 derhii*
10
1 greater shadow and 3d6 shadows 11
falling damage. Natural plant and animal life grows with
abandon, and creatures that spend more than 1 consecutive
week within the Well of Axuma begin to perceive the f low
of life energy around them. Those with a Wisdom score of
11 or greater may use detect animals and plants, detect undead,
and deathwatch at will as spell-like abilities within the Well
of Axuma. Those with Intelligence 11 or above can bend
reality slightly, enabling them to use detect magic, mage
hand, or prestidigitation at will. Those with a Charisma
score of 11 or above can attempt to recharge spell-trigger
items. This attempt requires 1 minute of concentration
and a Use Magic Device check with a DC of 20 plus the
item’s caster level. The DC increases by 5 for each recharge
attempt made by a given creature or upon a given item
(regardless of who tries to recharge it) within a given day.
If the check succeeds, the item regains 1 charge. If it fails,
the character takes 1d4 points of Charisma damage from
magical feedback and the item loses 1d4 charges.
Since the city’s fall, the Well of Axuma does not function
as it once did. While its mystic matrix was not destroyed, it
was disrupted, and sometimes f lares discordantly. Animated
objects crawl to life at random intervals, driven by residual
magical f luctuations and spiritual energy. In addition, every
24 hours disruptive f luctuations within the matrix deal 1d4
points of damage to a random ability score of any creatures
in Kho’s valley that fail a Fortitude save (DC 15 negates).
Creatures that fail this saving throw do not benefit from the
Well of Axuma’s accelerated healing property for the next
24 hours. Creatures that remain within the Well’s bounds
for 1 uninterrupted month become acclimated to these
f luctuations and do not risk harm; however, when they exit
the well, their minds and bodies must reorient themselves
to the unbent contours of normal reality. The effects of this
are identical to the potential ability damage of entering (or
reentering) the Well of Axuma, except they occur once per
day for the first 1d6 days after leaving.
These sputtering irruptions of raw magical energy may
be harmless, but at points where the tendrils of magic decay
to utter ruin, they can unravel the very substance of reality,
creating short-lived holes in the fabric of the universe.
These “rogue spheres” are rare, generally arising from
conjunctions between powerful and overlapping magical
fields in the city’s broken magical engines and devices,
and they rarely last more than a few hours, often f loating
motionless or drifting aimlessly until they dissolve. Yet on
those occasions when they interact with solid objects or
creatures, the results are catastrophic. Treat rogue spheres
as a CR 15 hazard similar to spheres of annihilation, but
attracted to spellcasting; magic used within 120 feet causes
a rogue sphere to move toward the caster at a speed of 5 plus 5
feet per level of the spell being cast. A rogue sphere within
30 feet of an ongoing magical aura of caster level 5th or
higher (including magic items and active spells) drifts
Source
Bestiary 232
page 23
Bestiary 194
Bestiary 209
Bestiary 245
page 23
Bestiary 284
Bestiary 199
Bestiary 14
Bestiary 43
Bestiary 242
Bestiary 14
Bestiary 2 68
Bestiary 142, 203
Bestiary 142
Bestiary 245
High Level
d%
Result
Avg. CR Source
1–14
2 leukodaemons and
2d6 hadi rajwans*
12
Bestiary 2 68
15–26 1 giant stone golem
12
Bestiary 163, 295
27–39 1 crystal elder xorn and
1d8 crystal xorns*
12
Bestiary 284
40–52 1 legion of 3d6 army ant swarms 12
Bestiary 16
53–64 1 morlock war party**
13
Bestiary 209
65–76 2 marids and
2 elder water elementals
14
Bestiary 142, 127
77–88 1 marid hunting party***
14
Bestiary 142
89–100 1 astradaemon
16
Bestiary 2 63
* Variant or new monster detailed in this chapter.
** 1 morlock cleric 8, 1d4 morlock barbarians 5, and 3d6 morlocks.
*** 1 noble marid, 1d4 marids, and 3d4 derhii guards.
The Well of Axuma
The greatest treasure of Kho is one that cannot be looted.
The Well of Axuma, named for its creator, is not a physical
object but a self-renewing vessel of magical energy developed
by the ancient Shory, a lacework of magical energies that
permeates the entire city. Enchantments laid upon the
city were cast into the Well of Axuma and were diffused
throughout the entire city, uplifting and sustaining the life
energies of every citizen and fulfilling their physical needs,
while allowing them to tap into its power to perform minor
acts of everyday magic.
Within the Well of Axuma, which covers the entire
valley of Kho and extends a half-mile in every direction,
all creatures enjoy the effects of endure elements and heal
naturally at twice the normal rate. Gravity is subtly altered
as well, and creatures reduce falling damage by half and gain
a +10 bonus on Acrobatics checks made to jump or reduce
21
21
Crystal Creature Template
toward the highest-level aura at a speed equal to that aura’s
caster level (rounded down to the nearest multiple of 5).
Nondetection and similar effects hide passive auras but not
active spellcasting from a rogue sphere’s detection.
Rogue spheres are not always easily visible, sometimes
appearing more as a ripple or whorl in midair than as a
sphere of blackness. The DC to spot one is 15 in bright
light, 20 in normal light, 25 in dim light, and 30 in
darkness. Detect magic does not detect rogue spheres, but
true seeing shows them for what they are. A DC 25 Knowledge
(arcana) check also identifies their true nature once they
are noticed. Rogue spheres are not quite as destructive as
true spheres of annihilation, instead affecting creatures or
spell effects they touch as a simultaneous disintegrate spell
(DC 20) and greater dispel magic spell (caster level 20th).
Depending on how a rogue sphere is encountered, it might
make a +15 melee touch attack against a magical effect or
magic-using creature, or creatures moving into its space
unaware might need to make a DC 25 Ref lex save to avoid
contacting it. In a combat situation, treat a rogue sphere as
a creature with a +5 initiative modifier.
“Crystal creature” is an acquired template that can be
added to any creature with the earth subtype. A crystal
creature retains all the base creature’s statistics and
special abilities except as noted here.
CR: Same as the base creature +1.
Senses: A crystal creature gains low-light vision.
Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +4.
Defensive Abilities: A crystal creature gains resistance
10 to acid, cold, electricity, and fire, and DR 5/— unless the
base creature’s DR is better. A crystal creature is immune
to the harmful effects of bright light (including effects
that blind with light); effects with the light descriptor; and
other light-based attacks such as color spray, prismatic
spray, and searing light. If the creature is hit with such an
effect, the DC for its dazzling form attack increases by +2.
Weakness: A crystal creature gains vulnerability to
sonic damage.
Special Attacks: A crystal creature gains the following
special attacks.
Brilliant Pestilence (Su): The creature’s natural attacks
inflict a supernatural disease. Bite or claw—injury; save
Fort DC 23; onset 1 day; frequency 1 day; effect 1d6 Dex
damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. A creature whose
Dexterity is reduced to 0 by the disease is petrified and
transformed into lifeless crystal. A creature with the
earth subtype that is petrified by this disease revives 24
hours later and gains the crystal creature template. Once
transformed, only miracle, polymorph any object, or wish
restores the transformed earth creature.
Dazzling Form (Ex): A crystalline creature refracts and
reflects a dazzling cascade of light when illuminated. In
normal light, this radiance extends 30 feet; in bright light,
it extends 60 feet. Within this area, all sighted creatures
are dazzled for 1 minute if they fail a Fortitude save (DC
10 + 1/2 the creature’s racial Hit Dice + the creature’s
Charisma modifier). Creatures within this radius that
are looking at the crystal xorn must save every round or
become permanently blind (Fortitude negates); this is a
gaze attack. The DC of these abilities increases by +2
in bright light.
Special Qualities: A crystal creatures gains
the following special quality.
Light Amplification (Ex): A crystal
creature’s body naturally captures and
magnifies light that strikes it. When
in normal light, it sheds normal light
in a 30-foot radius. In bright light, it
sheds normal light in a 60-foot radius.
Abilities: Str +2, Dex +4, Con +2, Int –4. If this
reduces the creature’s Int to 0 or less, it becomes
mindless.
22
Kho
Variant Monsters
Derhii
The ruins of Kho are home to many strange beings. Some
are misshapen constructs or bound outsiders lingering on
from a forgotten age, but more are scions of the city in the
long ages since its fall. While most of Kho’s derhii f ly free,
some cleave to their ancient tradition of service, binding
themselves to the marids who claim lordship of Kho. These
derhii do not serve for free, accepting gifts and even wishes
in trade and receiving the blessings of their masters (see
invisibility 3/day [CL 7th, concentration +7] and cold resistance
20). The valley’s opposite end is home to the crystal xorns of
the Vokthavaravat Cluster, transformed by their diet of Shory
glass into living crystals. They have the crystal creature
template (see sidebar), save that their form of brilliant
pestilence converts only creatures with the earth subtype
into creatures with this template. Other creatures aff licted
with this disease are turned to lifeless crystal statues, which
are swiftly devoured by the hungry crystal xorns.
Some of Kho’s most unpleasant residents are oozes, the
results of magical radiation or half-sentient muck escaped
from cracked alchemical engines. Some were even created
by the leukodaemons who have made the city their home,
half-failed experiments in the arts of illness, dumped
miserably from their curdled f leshpots and now creeping
through the city. Frothing oozes are foamy, grayish-white
masses that constantly bubble and froth, spattering those
nearby with their filth. These variant gray oozes deal acid
damage and spread blinding sickness to all creatures
adjacent to them at the start of the creature’s turn; a DC
20 Ref lex save negates both damage and exposure, but any
creature that the ooze hits with its slam attack or that strikes
it with a natural weapon or unarmed attack automatically
both takes damage and suffers from exposure. The
loathsome umber jelly is a mass of infectious protoplasm
identical to an ochre jelly, except that it deals slimy doom
(DC 14 Fortitude save negates) with its slam attack or upon
creatures that touch or strike it with their bodies, and its
putrescent odor acts as a continuous stinking cloud (DC 19
Fortitude save negates) centered on and moving with the
jelly. (Both variants add +1 CR to the base creature.)
The leukodaemons also have spawned a servitor race
from the unnaturally cunning experimental rats and their
descendants left behind by the Shory. The hadi are awakened
dire rats with the advanced creature simple template. With
an average Intelligence of 14 and prehensile paws, f luent
and literate in Abyssal like their masters, they are capable
assistants in the daemons’ sinister experiments. Some hadi
have been warped still further. Bred for battle, the hadi
rajwan are like their cunning rat brethren but are also 2ndlevel barbarians with the giant creature simple template.
Most insidious of all, the hadi tafen are shapeshifters,
with statistics identical to advanced wererats. They often
command one or more rat swarms.
This black-furred creature looks like a common gorilla, save for
the enormous gray wings sprouting from behind its shoulders.
Derhii
XP 1,600
CR 5
N Large monstrous humanoid
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +14
Defense
AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+3 Dex, +6 natural, –1 size)
hp 59 (7d10+21)
Offense
Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (poor)
Melee mwk falchion +12/+7 (2d6+7/18–20), 2 slams +11 (1d6+5)
Ranged javelin +9/+4 (1d8+5)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks aerial charge, knockdown
Statistics
Feats Acrobatic, Combat Reflexes, Iron Will, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Acrobatics +12, Climb +13, Fly +9, Perception +14
Languages Polyglot
SQ booming voice
Gear masterwork falchion, 6 javelins
Ecology
Environment warm forests and mountains
Organization solitary, pair company (3–5), or tribe (8–48)
Treasure standard
Special Abilities
Aerial Charge (Ex) When airborne, a derhii can dive at twice
its normal flying speed. This is the equivalent of a charge,
gaining a +2 bonus on the attack roll and a –2 penalty to AC.
Booming Voice (Ex) A derhii can use its powerful voice as a
signal, making booming, wordless calls. The sound can be
heard up to 12 miles away as a thrumming in the air that
conveys 20 words of information over 5 minutes.
Knockdown (Ex) When a derhii confirms a critical hit with
a two-handed weapon, it can knock an opponent prone,
in addition to the damage dealt by the critical hit. If the
derhii’s conformation roll exceeds its opponent’s CMD,
the opponent is knocked prone as if from the trip combat
maneuver. This does not provoke an attack of opportunity.
If the derhii is tripped during its own trip attack, it can drop
its weapon to avoid being tripped.
The flying apes known as derhii resemble more intelligent
versions of common gorillas, and live in primitive jungle tribes
whose territories may range for hundreds of miles. Though
capable of surviving on fruits and insects, they prefer to hunt,
employing surprisingly well-forged weapons. A typical derhii
weighs 400 pounds and stands 8 feet tall.
23
21
Storasta
In our final hours, there is little left to say. Those who worship
the gods take to their knees, heedless of the obvious evidence
of their own abandonment. The sky is red and black, swarming
with the dark flies of the Lord of the Locust Host. The land
is bare and twisted, its stones heaving like a gasping creature.
Can there be any question?
Mighty Storasta is no more. Its warriors lie in great lines
beyond the city walls, their guts splayed to the sky, some still
screaming. Yet the true victims are the gardens and groves, the
sinless children of the earth. Already they twist from my hand,
and I weep to hear their cries.
Revenge is a bitter fruit. But I will taste its juice before I fall.
—Treespeaker Salmus Achyon, last letter to a friend
24
Storasta
W
hen the shattering eruption of the
Worldwound swallowed old Sarkoris, its
painted warriors and spirit-shamans were
no match for the ravening hordes of unfettered chaos and
insensate evil. While the capital city of Iz was the first to
fall, its outlying settlements were not long in following.
The southern river-port of Storasta was the last holdout
of Sarkoris’s cities. Here the anointed groves and sacred
circles were strongest, and tribal witches and shamans
joined with druids of old Mendev and Numerian war-clans,
swearing blood oaths that if this was to be their end, they
would make such an end as to be worthy of remembrance.
Their wish was granted, as the bloody annihilation of
Storasta and the last remnants of the kingdom were
immortalized in the “Song of Sarkoris.” Though hardly
complimentary of Sarkoris as a nation, its ringing refrains
of their desperate bravery when all hope was lost helped
spur the call for the Mendevian crusade.
While Storasta lives in song and memory, the city died in
those bloody days, its buildings shattered, its walls crumbled,
its proud bridges blackened by abyssal fires. So strong were
the primal magics of nature unleashed there that witchcraft
and idolatry merged with the raw essence of chaos, and nature
itself overtook the devastated city. As though every drop of
blood, from defender and demonic alike, formed a tainted
seed, deformed and corrupted vegetation erupted all over the
city. Nests and pits of vermin boiled up across a city swiftly
overtaken with putrescent moss and thorny tangles. Storasta,
once known for its gardens and groves, became so blightwracked that even the demon-hordes found it inhospitable,
save for along the weed-choked riverbanks and crossings,
where they wait and watch along the river to menace any who
would dare to pass.
graze numbly amid the scrub to the west of the city, while
the city proper sometimes glistens with f loodwaters that
rise up inexplicably and without warning to inundate its
low-lying wards. Above it all, a titanic mound rises in the
city’s heart, crowned with great trees and shrouded with
sickly f lowers.
History
Before Sarkoris or Numeria had names, clans and tribes
along the Sellen and Sarkora would meet at Storasta to
trade or to settle disputes. The first permanent building
here was a stone circle, which over the centuries evolved
into the never-finished patchwork cathedral of Nekrasof
Tower. Dedicated to Pharasma, great funerals conducted
there ended with the dead being cast into the rivers to be
carried beyond. Eventually other circles were erected on
Barraza Island and Basseri Green, and the city slowly grew
in around these sacred sites, becoming a center of learning
and music.
In 3845 ar, Adyson Stormont and his company arrived in
Storasta after the Shining Crusade. He and his company
sought adventure from Storasta for years, but he also used
his riverboats to ferry passengers across the West Sellen
River, and as he approached retirement, he bargained with
the city’s leaders to trade him the rights to the island in the
Sellen in perpetuity in return for bringing engineers from
Lastwall to construct bridges. Construction on the Bridges
of Barraza was finished in 3865 ar, but Stormont and his
family were murdered and their fortune stolen before
they saw the bridges completed. In his honor, the rulers of
Storasta continued to operate the ferry, memorializing it
and Stormont Isle with his name.
The bridges and ferry boosted trade with ranchers
to the west and the river folk up and down the Sellen.
Storasta remained a free city for centuries, respected by
all but controlled by none, but rifts divided it between
traditionalists and those who craved the fruits of
modernity. The priesthood resisted expansion, railing
against “southlander inf luences” and proclaiming that
Storasta must remain the wild and pure spiritual heart
of the northlands, but though Storasta’s growth was
slow, it could not be denied. The priesthood continued
to hold sway, but strife intensified until the Burning of
the Bridges in 4000 ar. In retaliation, the ranchers of the
west mobilized their allies in Sarkoris to annex Storasta
to the kingdom once and for all. Warlord Uloric Dziergas
and his army arrived in the fall of that year with the
high witch-wardens of Iz, Undarin, and Dyinglight, who
challenged and overthrew the shaman-rulers of Storasta.
Taare Trathen was named Warlord of Storasta and held the
post for 47 years, rebuilding the bridges and constructing
the great eastern wall and gate of city, as well as building
up businesses along the river. While he lived in the newly
Appearance
For a city fallen for less than a century, Storasta is
nevertheless the very picture of a ruin. Perched at the
conf luence of the Sarkora River with the mighty West
Sellen, much of the city is a tumbledown heap of rubble
crawling with thick yet sickly foliage, as though it were
f logged to an unnatural growth by the twisted energies
of the Worldwound and swollen to bursting with an
unnatural, bilious vitality it can barely contain. A
partially demolished hill-fort still guards Stormont Isle
and the passage of the West Sellen, though the great
eastern wall and keep sag lazily inward. An overgrown
dike shields Storasta’s northern side from the turbid
creeks of the Sarkora, entering the northern f low just
above Barraza Island. The once-broken bridges of stone
spanning to the island from either bank are once again
whole, after a fashion, as the sturdy stone has been
replaced with massive, creaking log-bridges suspended
from fibrous hawsers of living vine. Tainted herds still
25
33
Storasta
0
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TRATHEN’S
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STOCKYARDS
CARROCK’S
CARROSK’S
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BASSERI
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STORMONT
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26
WE S
T
SELL
EN R
IVER
Storasta
The Song of Sarkoris
constructed Riverkeep, his nightly excursions—even into
old age—to the entertainment establishments along the
narrow strip of land bordering the Sarkora gave it the
mocking nickname of Trathen’s Finger. The power of the
shamans waned but did not disappear, as little by little
over a period of 600 years, the gardens of the city were
squeezed and cut to make room for the city’s growth, until
the three great circles were all that remained. When the
demon onslaught came to Storasta, desperate refugees and
warriors filled the circles, finding courage and faith once
more to sacrifice to the bitter end.
The famed skald epic “The Song of Sarkoris” was written
over countless generations, passed from master to
apprentice for hundreds of years. With the passing of
each decade, new verses appended to the traditional lyrics
extended the chronicle to include recent events. The final
lines of the work detail the last Sarkorian stand in Storasta.
Green trees bending stand with us,
Carrock enduring, valorous,
But will he be left alone?
Naught but blood and shattered bone
Left of all he hoped to save.
Where are the warriors once called brave?
The men we once called brother,
Children of a common mother,
Brothers far and brothers near,
Are you overcome with fear?
Soon comes your time now to be brave
For your own lives you must save.
But these words, our last to say
As we face our final day,
Ponder deeply, ponder well,
It matters not, Abyss or Hell,
When you face an open grave
Who among you shall be brave?
When hope is dead and hope is gone
Who among you will fight on?
No victory, no sweet reward,
No lover’s kiss, no sweet love’s bliss,
Our bodies die, our corpses hung,
And when destroyed are we all
Our clutching hate may still their jaws.
Devour’d we, our foes’ bowels pause,
As we torment them as their very dung.
Residents
Storasta’s inhabitants form a curious balance, as tainted
sentient plants and darkling fey—vitalized by the
lingering spirits of Storasta’s last defenders but warped
by the Worldwound’s emanations—control most of the
city. The waterways and marshes around the city are
largely controlled by aquatic demons and their cultic
followers: hags, trolls, and boggards in the main, as well as
primitive tribes of grindylows—water-dwelling goblinoid
aberrations who unquestioningly serve their demonic
masters. The demons’ servants are able to travel beyond
the Wardstones that prevent the demons from venturing
southward past the river.
Mightiest of Storasta’s inhabitants is the mad treant
Carrock (NE male giant fiendish treant druid 15), ruling
from the cyclopean mound of Carrock’s How at the city’s
heart. He has cultivated an entire grove of fiendish treants
that serve him, as well as enlisted a network of evil dryad
spies and cruel nymphs which often keep harems of enslaved
satyrs and werewolves to serve and fight at their pleasure.
Assassin vines, shambling mounds, and plant-zombies also
roam the city, some under Carrock’s thumb and others not,
but the treelord’s tendriculoses (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2
260) wait at the bottom of his Hungry Pits to consume any
f lesh or fiber that displeases him.
His chief rival for power is Lalizarzadeh (CE female
hezrou fighter 7), a cunning brute who lairs in the repaired
keep on Stormont Isle. She dares not challenge the treelord
but truly has no reason to; her mandate is to watch the
river and destroy any who try to use it. She keeps to the
waters and guards them well, and it is largely because of
her depredations that most Mendevian crusaders take
the long way around through Numeria, Brevoy, and the
River Kingdoms, rather than daring the direct route to
Nerosyan up the West Sellen. Her merrow, scrag, and
grindylow minions range across the frontier marauding
and ambushing as they can, sometimes even crawling up
under the walls of Nerosyan itself. Meanwhile, in Storasta,
her green hag covens help balance the magical power at
Carrock’s disposal, and she also has a trump card of her
own in her unholy spawn, Kulkarni (CE advanced giant
half-fiend froghemoth), an abomination even the dark
treants challenge at their peril.
Of uncertain allegiance is Briktawite (CE green hag
witch 11), who visits with both camps but is beholden to
neither. She comes and goes from Storasta as she pleases,
often bringing information to both leaders, sometimes in
the company of common hags or lesser witches.
Allied to none are the roaming herds of plague steeds
and plague aurochs that wander the prairie between
Storasta and Undarin. Servants only to those with the
necromantic power to command them, they exist for no
other purpose but to spread their taint wherever they
roam. Likewise, the ubiquitous vermin of Storasta live
only to eat or be eaten themselves, endlessly respawning
in the Worldwound’s fecundity.
27
33
Relations and Trade
Sites of Interest
Storasta was once a holy place, and many surviving
Sarkorians keep with them a relic or token from the
sacred groves that once grew here. Ironically, those same
sacred trees and stones appear precious to Carrock, who
has offered rewards to any who bring to him, whole or in
pieces, standing stones or sacred trees from any of the
ancient circles that can be found across the Worldwound,
as well as druid circles from across Avistan. It is said he
uses them to construct his great mound, and the larger
the intact pieces, the greater his reward. Those who
attempt to cheat him typically f ind themselves savagely
beaten before being deposited in his Hungry Pits.
As a center of the priesthood, however, Storasta
was also a center of magical manufacture, though the
shamans of Sarkoris were apt to craft their scrolls
as rune-carved sticks and
their potions in the form
of magical fruits or herbal
tinctures. Still, many
caches of such devices,
as well as a few rare,
more powerful items,
can be unearthed in the
city. Raiders occasionally
venture into Storasta by stealth,
following treasure maps that purport to lead to such stores
of magical treasure; most are never heard from again, many
having bought or found spurious maps planted by cunning
green hags to lure them to their doom.
Since the Third Mendevian Crusade, a hidden fort
was established 2 miles south of the river. Fort Amerine
is guarded by a cadre of rangers and inquisitors who use
stealth to keep the location of their base a secret. The
commander, Trudean Delashaw (NG female human
abjurer 9), supervises the care of the Wardstones along this
section of the river and also coordinates counterstrikes
against demon raids. She can create and sell magic scrolls,
and at urgent need could provide high-level casting for
adventurers in her good graces, perhaps even conveying
them to Nerosyan by teleport if the need is great and they
have proved their worth.
Within the city, the only real currency is blood and fear,
though the material greed of some of its lesser inhabitants
can sometimes be played upon through bluffs or bribes.
The grindylows, merrow, and scrags all thirst for gold and
their loyalty can be bought, however brief ly, and they can
prove useful sources of information on the whereabouts
and intentions of their betters. The pitiless plants of
Carrock’s host, however, have no such appetites, though
his fey can be persuaded with gifts when the mood strikes
them. Most in Storasta respect only power, and only when
it is nearby.
Storasta contains many sites of interest (and danger) to
those who visit its tainted streets. Most of the city is covered
in light or heavy undergrowth (except the Rushwaters,
where light and dense rubble are found instead).
Barraza Island: This small island near the west bank
of the Sarkora was once a sacred druid circle, though
its standing stones and grove were long ago pillaged for
Carrock’s How. The site remains
strong in nature magic, and druid
or ranger spells cast on
Barraza take effect at +1
caster level on most of
the island. However,
the razed stone circle and
grove itself act as a dweomersink
(Pathfinder RPG GameMastery
Guide 244), as the violation
of the ancient site has partly
unhinged the f low of natural
magical energies. The entire island
is covered with heavy undergrowth, and
the verdant bridges connecting the island
with the banks are laced with assassin
vines, allowing none without Carrock’s
seal to pass unmolested.
Basseri Green: The ancient heart of the city, a
space kept green and wild with groves and circles even
as the city grew up around it, Basseri Green was the seat
of spirit worship, where fey danced and bards declaimed
the epics of old. The Green is a nearly impassable thicket
guarded by treants and awakened trees, and still roamed by
fey, albeit fey of a decidedly darker countenance who dally
with Abyss-tainted satyrs and werewolves alike.
Creekside: North of Storasta, the vale between the
twisted Serpent Creek to the north and Aemmer’s Creek
to the south is a frequent f lood zone, the reason for the
building of Aemmer’s Dike, a long earthen rampart
holding back those waters. The marshy area between the
creeks is a breeding ground for vermin of all types.
Eastwall: Stretching from Aemmer’s Dike in the
north to Riverkeep on the West Sellen, this mighty
wall proved only a minor inconvenience to the demon
hordes. Breached in many places by enslaved giants and
trolls, it was never wholly pulled down. The battered
barbican of Trathen’s Gate gives mute testimony to the
brave futility of ordinary defenses, and the triangular
Riverkeep yet stands a silent watch over the West Sellen,
its great river-chain long rusted. The demons gave up
defending the keep from the tireless encroachment of
trees and vines for the simpler safety of Stormont Isle,
but in the under-chambers, choked with the discarded
bones of the dead, Ploscaru the Hungry (CE f iendish
28
Storasta
lacedon ghast sorcerer [undead bloodline] 9) rules a
twisted court over his lesser kin.
The Rushwaters: The western section of Storasta proper
lies between the two mighty rivers, and its shoreline has
now subsided to the point that even minor f lood surges
wash over the entire district, filling streets and plazas
with eddying, knee-deep currents, while heavy rains can
inundate the area (treat as rough f lowing water; see page
432 of Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook). The largest intact
building here is the ramshackle cathedral called Nekrasof
Tower, surrounded by empty pits where its stone circle
once stood before adding its strength to Carrock’s How.
The witch Muslera (CE green hag witch 8), apprentice to
Briktawite, rules the tower when her mistress is absent.
Grindylows and merrow camp in the Rushwaters, though
hezrous and their favored scrag servants claim the best
riverbank locations.
Stormont Isle: This rocky outcrop in the West Sellen,
nearly 100 feet high, has long been a strategic bottleneck,
and Adyson Stormont long ago built a fort and his family
villa upon it, though the Stormonts did not live to enjoy
it for long. Later rulers maintained both the fort and
villa for years, using it to host grand balls and to help
defend the city’s approaches from the river. The fort was
of no help against the demon host; while conventional
troops sacked the city, an elite demonic strike team
simply teleported inside and slaughtered the defenders.
Lalizarzadeh led that assault and thereafter made it
her base of operations overlooking the city for nearly
a century. Her majordomo, Govostes the Torturer (CE
babau enchanter 8), questions prisoners brought before
his mistress or in her absence.
The West Yards: The lands west of the Sarkora River
were once dominated by stockyards and tanneries between
the twin forks of the Alathusa River. An army of nabasus
slaughtered Storasta’s cavalry here, and most of the
buildings were razed. The same men who fought to defend
Storasta now walk this marshy wasteland as ghouls,
ghasts, and lacedons. The doomed steeds and stock of
Storasta succumbed to zombie rot and were left to wander,
spreading their corrupting blight as they went.
North and west of the fork of the Alathusa River lie the
closest of the countless barrow-downs of Storasta’s ancient
heroes, which surround the settlement. Most of these
gravesites have long since been pillaged and desecrated,
though lone cairn wights yet lair amid their former graves.
Some of the region’s less social denizens use the isolated
cairns as lairs, and explorers of the mounds may encounter
monstrous vermin, rogue demons, and deadly oozes.
Trathen’s Finger: This sliver of land, separated from
Carrock’s How by a narrow, backwater slough, was at one
time a center of bawdy entertainment, gambling, and all
manner of vices favored by the rivermen of Sarkoris (and
old Taare Trathen himself ). Today Nanisivik (CE male
grindylow f ighter 12) vies with Siukim (NE shambling
mound cleric 6) for control of the district, with both
sides recruiting green hags and lacedons to battle in the
ruined streets.
The Storasta Campaign
As with much of the demon-blasted Worldwound, the ruins
of Storasta present an unceasing source of danger and
adventure. The city’s position on the edge of the twisted
land, however, makes it both a great introduction to the
region at large and one of the most threatening areas,
since its denizens have shorter to travel to encroach on
the civilized world beyond the Wardstones. The relatively
recent fall of the city and its cataclysmic demise provide
countless reasons for modern adventurers to venture into
its heart for secrets and mysteries rooted in the memories
of still-living elders.
As dangerous as Storasta is for the inexperienced, there are
still plenty of adventures for low-level PCs in and around
the ruined metropolis. The city’s proximity to Nerosyan,
a major city consecrated to and protected by the powers of
good, allows more vulnerable parties to engage in short
raids or reconnaissance missions without risking longterm entrenchment in the Worldwound. Both the demonic
forces of Storasta and the city’s corrupted plants and fey
employ a variety of lesser minions whose actions can
spread beyond the city proper and hook PCs into greater
challenges in the ruin’s core.
For such low-level hooks, the fey, werewolf, and grindylow
servants of Storasta’s more powerful forces make excellent
foes, as do the region’s lingering undead. Unhindered
by the restraints of the Wardstones, raiding parties with
allegiances to both Carrock and Lalizarzadeh may venture
into northern Numeria or southwestern Mendev collecting
treasure, natural resources, or even human sacrifices for
their superiors, prompting a retaliatory mission or rescue
attempt by the PCs. Parties affiliated with the Mendevian
Crusades may be sent into the Storastan hinterlands by
Jade Surcinelli (LG female human cavalier 8), a crusader
captain in Nerosyan, to strike at a grindylow encampment
on the banks of the West Sellen several miles east of Storasta
proper where a squadron of crusaders are rumored to be
held captive.
In campaigns destined to focus more on the twisted
plants and fey who call Storasta home, PCs may encounter
Variskala, a green hag allied with Carrock. Under the
guise of a simple peasant or merchant in Nerosyan, the
hag feeds the party rumors, hoping to lure them into the
Worldwound and within reach of her arboreal master’s
fiendish grasp. PCs may be directed to nearby druid circles
29
33
or magical locations to collect relics to add to Carrock’s
How, or to obtain components for an experimental weapon
effective against demons for the treant to use in gaining
control of the city.
PCs easily tempted by the promise of treasure may hear
of the long-abandoned burial mounds surrounding the
city and the treasures none have yet plundered because of
the difficulty of traversing the Worldwound’s hazards to
attain them. While exploring the haunted barrows, they
encounter Khistian Yadranko, a frost wight mounted on a
plague steed sent by Lalizardadeh beyond the Wardstones to
harry outlying crusader villages. Investigation and astute
tracking leads the PCs into the heart of Storasta and into
the green hag’s nefarious plans.
solid foundation for the final push into their respective
bastions at higher levels.
Stormont Isle and Carrock’s How provide worthy
challenges for high-level parties; after working their
way up from Lalizarzadah’s and Carrock’s minions and
making their way into the city’s heart, the PCs should
now be on track to face one of Storasta’s feuding masters.
Depending on which foe the PCs set their sights on,
they may wish to make a tenuous alliance with the other
faction for aid in defeating their rival. The green hag
Briktawite makes an excellent envoy to either camp
and approaches any party that shows potential in the
region for taking out one or the other of Storasta’s
highest powers. Whichever side the PCs ally with, once
their primary foe is defeated, they must face the nowunopposed might of their former friend, who holds no
loyalty to the PCs for their assistance in bringing about
the rival’s demise.
Parties not open to the idea of allying with demons or
maniacal fiendish treants can be drawn into Storasta’s
heart when both powers threaten the fragile balance of
the region. In his ever-desperate quest to build his How
higher, Carrock focuses all his resources on obtaining
one of the Wardstones that keep Storasta’s Abyssal armies
contained. As the treant’s forces excavate one such stone, a
gap forms in the invisible barrier fencing in the demons,
and they swarm out into northern Numeria and Mendev.
Facing a complete collapse of their defensive measures, the
Mendevian Crusaders send the PCs into Storasta to cut off
Lalizarzadah’s forces or to retrieve the captured Wardstone
from Carrock’s How.
As PCs enter the mid-level range, exploration and
adventure in central Storasta begin to look less like a
suicidal endeavor. There are a number of reasons PCs may
venture into the deadly ruin, including following up on
plots begun in the low-level adventures above.
As PCs near Storasta, they may encounter a demonic
cult of Sarkorian barbarians who now venerate their
Abyssal tormentors. The PCs find the cult in civil strife,
with shaman Jarjees (CE male human cleric of Deskari 9)
attempting to win the tribe away from chieftain Ranganath
(CN male human barbarian 5/ranger 5), whose faction
follows Cyth-V’sug above all other demon lords and feels
that they should ally with Carrock’s forces in Storasta. The
PCs may use the cultists as tools in their own assault on
Storasta or as sources of information on the goings on in
the city proper.
Trudean Delashaw at Fort Amerine may send the
PCs into the West Yards to destroy the undead hosts of
mindless plague steeds and plague aurochs housed there,
eradicating them as a major threat to the outlying areas
where Storasta’s higher powers send them to wreak havoc
beyond the Wardstones. Once there, the PCs are but a short
distance from Carrock’s How and Stormont Isle, and
could easily become entangled in the ongoing struggle for
overall control of Storasta.
Especially daring parties may wish to wage an ongoing
assault on Storasta, declaring war on the entire befouled
city. Fort Amerine makes an excellent base of operations
for such an endeavor, and Trudean’s alliance with the
Mendevian Crusaders may provide the PCs with a source
of cohorts or other followers. A southern approach is
easiest for a party based in Numeria, and it takes many
weeks of fighting through scouts and sentinels along the
West Sellen’s banks and neighboring marshlands before
they can even think of breaching the city itself. Weakening
Storasta’s defenses and depleting the number of shock
troops available to both Carrock and Lalizarzadah lays a
Random Encounters
Low Level
d%
1–5
6–10
11–15
16–20
21–25
26–30
31–40
41–45
46–50
51–55
56–60
61–65
66–70
71–75
76–80
30
Result
Avg. CR
1 lacedon ghoul
1
1d3 mining beetles
1
1 plague steed*
1
1d3 yellow musk zombies
1
1 abyssal tick swarm*
1
1d6 grindylows
2
1 dretch
2
2d3 stirges 2
1 fiendish werewolf
3
1 lacedon ghast
3
1 cairn wight
4
1 centipede swarm
4
1 advanced freshwater merrow 4
1 fiendish dryad
4
1 leech swarm
4
Source
Bestiary 146
Bestiary 33
Page 32
Bestiary 285
Page 32
Bestiary 2 148
Bestiary 60
Bestiary 260
Bestiary 198, 294
Bestiary 146
Bestiary 276
Bestiary 43
Bestiary 2 189, 292
Bestiary 116, 294
Bestiary 187
Storasta
81–85 1d3 assassin vines
86–90 1 giant river (moray) eel
91–95 1 green hag
96–100 1 scrag
5
5
5
5
SHADES OF THE FALLEN
Bestiary 22
Bestiary 119
Bestiary 167
Bestiary 268
There is a strong psychic and spiritual residue of
Storasta’s slaughtered defenders, the unquiet remains of
the last stalwart host of Sarkoris. Haunts (see page 242
of Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide) are commonplace
in Storasta, especially when exploring or unearthing a
building long undisturbed. The spirits of the lost are even
known to rise when the call of battle sounds. A horn of
Valhalla sounded in Storasta automatically brings double
the normal number of berserkers. When a summoning
or calling spell is cast within Storasta, roll 1d20 and add
the level of the summoning or calling effect to see if such
shades are attracted.
Medium Level
d%
1–8
9–14
15–19
20–26
27–35
36–43
44–49
50–56
57–61
62–66
67–71
72–79
80–87
88–92
93–100
Result
Avg. CR
1 swamp skulker**
6
2d3 fiendish giant frogs
6
1 shambling mound
6
1 wood golem
6
2 half-fiend dryads
7
1 chuul
7
2 fiendish dire wolverines
7
1 freshwater merrow rogue 4
7
2d3 frost wights
8
1 giant slug
8
2d3 giant stag beetles
8
2d3 plague aurochs*
8
1 fiendish treant
9
1d4+1 will-o’-wisps
9
2 fiendish nymphs
10
Source
Bestiary 60, 294, 286
Bestiary 135, 294
Bestiary 246
Bestiary 164
Bestiary 116, 171
Bestiary 46
Bestiary 279, 294
Bestiary 2 189
Bestiary 276
Bestiary 254
Bestiary 33
Page 32
Bestiary 266, 294
Bestiary 277
Bestiary 217, 294
d20
1–15
16–17
18–19
20–21
22–23
24–25
26+
High Level
d%
Result
Avg. CR
1–11
1 hezrou
11
12–23 1 fiendish giant flytrap
11
24–35 1 hezrou and 1d6 scrags
12
36–47 1 fiendish elder water elemental 12
48–59 2d3 chuuls, 1 advanced giant chuul 13
60–71 1d3+1 giant fiendish treants
13
72–83 1 green hag witch 11
14
84–93 1 ancient black dragon
16
94–100 Kulkarni*
18
* Variant or new monster detailed in this chapter.
** Advanced dretch ranger 2 on yeth hound
Source
Bestiary 62
Bestiary 134, 294
Bestiary 62, 268
Bestiary 127, 294
Bestiary 46, 294, 295
Bestiary 266, 294, 295
Bestiary 167
Bestiary 93
See page 27
Result
no additional effect
1–3 celestial or fiendish horses
2–5 barbarians as iron horn of Valhalla
3–8 barbarians as bronze horn of Valhalla
3–8 barbarians as brass horn of Valhalla
4–9 barbarians as silver horn of Valhalla
unique summons (this could be a celestial or fiendish mastodon, barbarian chieftain [GameMastery Guide 307], or 1–3
raiders or vikings [GameMastery Guide 280–281])
Shades of the fallen awoken in this fashion are
constructs, and they and their gear vanish when slain or 1
hour after being awoken. The shades have a 50% chance
to attack any obviously evil creatures they find, and a
50% chance to be completely mad and attack the nearest
creatures (other than themselves).
filth of the Worldwound’s taint. Drunk on its wild power,
Carrock drew more and more, too much for the shamans
to control, as they were sundered body and soul, burned to
frozen cinders by the overwhelming f low. Once the city was
taken, the exhausted demon armies were content to allow
the mad treant to rampage, even taking dark satisfaction as
he blindly devastated the city he once protected.
With the shamans dead, the mound’s power f lowed
uncontrolled, seeping into the very earth of Storasta
and causing it to erupt in a welter of blighted fecundity,
regurgitating chaos-warped fey spirits consumed elsewhere
in the Worldwound to dance amid the corrupted glades,
groves, and fungus fields that engulfed the shattered city.
Carrock, the voices of the shaman-spirits echoing within
him, returned to the Spirit Mound and bent its power to
his will, building his might, and before long the demons
who thought they had conquered Storasta were besieged by
nature itself—a nature as dark and twisted as they. Platoons
of demons were swallowed up, while their enemies, once
Carrock’s How
Dominating the skyline of Storasta, rising to twice the
height of the hill-keep of Stormont Isle, is the massive
edifice known as Carrock’s How. It rises almost as a living
thing itself, and in part it is, as still-living trees, roots, vines,
and cascades are woven with great slabs of rock to form an
unusual monolithic structure. Beneath the How stands
the ancient Spirit Mound of Storasta, greatest of its primal
places of power, linking idol priests and spirit circles across
Sarkoris. Storasta’s defenders drew deeply from its power
to defend their city, calling nature to life and empowering
its green wardens. Greatest of the defenders was the mighty
treant Carrock, who stood indomitable even as his allies fell
beside him and the shamans redirected their failing energies
into their champion. However, as the channel of primal
energies became a raging cataract, so too did the frozen
31
33
slain, simply grew anew, sprouting and multiplying. The
demons abandoned the core of Storasta to Carrock as not
worth the struggle, maintaining only a foothold and a
careful watch on the surround.
Carrock’s thirst for power was not slaked. He bid his
servants drag the sacred stones from across Storasta to
the mound, and sang to the trees to life-shape them first
into a grove, then a bower, and finally to weave them with
the standing stones into the foundation of the How. The
spirit-power in every tree and sacred stone resonated with
the Spirit Mound, and Carrock’s power grew greater. He
sent creeping servants far and wide to drag whole and
broken monoliths, dolmens, and standing stones from
across the Worldwound, until Carrock’s How now rises in
a great pile over 200 feet tall, an artificial hill enclosing a
warren of twisting passages and roots and vines fashioned
into strange twisting sigils, the Spirit Mound itself buried
deep within.
Game Effects: Carrock’s How is a fount of natural
energies and power that spreads its inf luence throughout
Storasta and the vicinity, linking itself to the life energy of
every creature within this radius. Its powers are strongest
within the city but extend up to 5 miles distant; however, its
powers are blocked by the Wardstones and the River Sellen.
Druidic magic is enhanced by Carrock’s How, with all
druid and ranger spells taking effect at +1 caster level.
Magic that specifically affects plants, vermin, fey, or
creatures with the chaotic subtype (including any spells
or spell-like abilities gained from the Chaos or Plant
domains or the abyssal, fey, or verdant sorcerer bloodlines)
also takes effect at +1 caster level and as if enhanced with
the Enlarge Spell and Extend Spell feats; these effects stack
with the caster level bonus to druidic magic.
Creatures of other types often feel f lushed and queasy
amid the torrent of corrupted life energy radiating from
Carrock’s How. They take a –2 penalty on saving throws
against becoming diseased, nauseated, or sickened, and if
slain, their remains have a 50% chance per day to animate
as plant-like zombies (treat as free-willed yellow musk
zombies but with neither a creator plant nor seeds for
yellow musk creepers). Creatures whose remains rise in
this way cannot be raised but can be returned to life by a
reincarnation or resurrection spell.
The spirits of the dead are also at risk in Storasta. The
entire city is haunted with the restless shades of Storasta’s
fallen defenders, and they clamor for the newly dead to
join their eternal lament. Infused with the spirit-energies
continually f lowing from the How, these shades surge
toward the departing spirits of the slain, binding them as
the rest eternal spell (Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide
238). The caster level check to overcome this effect is DC 30
inside of Carrock’s How and DC 25 elsewhere in Storasta.
The DC is reduced by 5 for each mile of distance between
the caster and the How. This effect can be negated with
break enchantment, remove curse, or dispel chaos against the
same DC.
Variant Monsters
Even on the fringes of the Worldwound, nature itself is
corrupted under the malign inf luence spewing forth
across the land. Vermin are exceptionally common in
Storasta; many have adapted or simply made a home in
their corrupted surroundings. An abyssal tick swarm
is a tick swarm (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 265) with the
fiendish simple template. As an agglomeration of typical
blood-sucking arthropods that carry with them the chaostainted plagues of the Worldwound, they pose significant
threats (CR 10); instead of bubonic plague, the swarm
carries demon fever (Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook 557).
Storasta was once a market center for ranchers and
herders of lost Sarkoris, with sprawling tanneries west of
the city, whose tainted eff lux swept downriver, away from
the city’s heart. Those ancient herds have not been spared
the Worldwound’s taint; the scrublands around Storasta are
roamed by plague steeds (CR 1), light horses with the plague
zombie template. These scabrous stallions and putrefied
mares attack with a single slam attack (slam +7, 1d8+6 plus
disease [zombie rot]). Far more terrifying, however, are the
plague aurochs (CR 5), the malformed stock of bison and
musk ox herds. They gain the plague zombie template but
retain their trample and stampede special attacks. Plague
aurochs possess an unearthly putrescence which grants
them the stench special quality (30-foot radius, Fort DC
13 negates, sickened for 1d6 minutes); creatures with the
scent special quality save at –4 against this effect.
Carrock
Looming as a weathered and battle-scarred titan, his bark
blackened and carved with runes of hate and vengeance, Carrock
remembers well the downfall of his city and his role in it, as
more of the city was demolished by his power-drunk rampage
than by the invaders. Even so, his self-loathing has long since
turned to hatred, not only of the invaders but of all who failed
him and his land.
Carrock
XP 307,200
CR 20
Male advanced fiendish treant druid (blight druid) 15
(Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide 98, Pathfinder RPG
Bestiary 266, 294)
NE Gargantuan plant
Init +4; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision;
Perception +40
Defense
AC 34, touch 7, flat-footed 34 (+4 armor, +1 insight, +23 natural,
–4 size)
32
Storasta
hp 445 (27d8+324)
Immune disease, plant traits; Resist cold 15, electricity 20,
fire 15; SR 25
Weaknesses vulnerable to fire
Combat Gear scroll of word of recall; Other Gear Carrock’s
Maul (+3 ghost touch vicious darkwood maul of the titans), belt
of physical might (Str, Con) +4, bracers of armor +4, cloak of
resistance +5, eyes of the eagle, headband of inspired wisdom
+6, ioun stone (dusty rose prism), ring of blinking, ring of spell
turning
* See Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide.
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 slam +31 (2d8+15), Carrock’s Maul +35/+30/+25/+20
(4d8+25/19–20 plus 2d6 vicious)
Ranged rock +19 (2d8+15)
Special Attacks rock throwing (180 ft.), smite good (+3 attack,
+27 damage, 1/day), trample (2d8+22, DC 31), wild shape 15
hours/day, wooden fist (+7, 11 rounds/day)
Druid Spells Prepared (CL 15th; concentration +23)
8th—control plantsD, finger of death (DC 26), whirlwind (DC 26)
7th—animate plants D, creeping doom, fire storm (DC 25), heal
6th—antilife shell, greater dispel magic, mass cure light
wounds, move earth, repel wood D
5th—animal growth, awaken, call lightning storm, insect
plague, rest eternal*, wall of thorns D
4th—air walk, command plants D, flame strike, freedom of
movement, giant vermin, ice storm, thorn body*
3rd—call lightning, cure serious wounds, plant growth D,
protection from energy (already cast), quench, speak
with plants, stone shape
2nd—barkskin D (already cast), cure moderate wounds,
heat metal, owl’s wisdom, resist energy, stone call,
wood shape
1st—ant haul* (already cast), bristle*, entangle D (DC 19),
faerie fire, longstrider, obscuring mist, produce flame
0 (at will)—detect magic, guidance, resistance, stabilize
D Domain spell; Domain Plant
Still possessed of mighty gifts of natural power, Carrock
draws upon the spirit-well of Carrock’s How (see page 31
for more information) to fuel his complex plots for the
destruction of any in his way. Those who venture into his
place of power find it a harrowing labyrinth, well guarded
by Carrock’s minions, and they are far more likely to find
their deaths than the spirit-well at its heart.
Statistics
Feats Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Wondrous
Item, Forge Ring, Greater Sunder, Greater Vital Strike,
Improved Critical (greatclub), Improved Initiative,
Improved Sunder, Improved Vital Strike, Persistent Spell*,
Power Attack, Stunning Assault*, Vital Strike, Weapon
Focus (greatclub)
Skills Climb +20, Diplomacy +16, Handle Animal +14,
Knowledge (history) +18, Knowledge (nature) +23,
Knowledge (religion) +18, Linguistics +3, Perception +40,
Sense Motive +17, Spellcraft +20, Stealth –8 (+8 in forests),
Survival +10; Racial Modifiers +16 Stealth in forests
Languages Abyssal, Common, Druidic, Hallit, Sylvan, Treant
SQ animate trees, blightblooded, bramble armor (1d6+7,
15 rounds/day), double damage against objects,
miasma*, nature bond (Plant domain), nature
sense, plaguebearer* (DC 25), timeless body,
treespeech, vermin empathy* +18, woodland stride
33
33
Sun Temple Colony
The inner eye shall open,
and in the glory of the weeping gate
the light shall flow, and with blistering purity
burn from us the sins of the world.
We who bear the light are the keepers,
raging a torrent within our flesh
and blistered with the promise of new worlds to come.
In the consumption of flame,
we are reborn in the image of divinity.
—Excerpt from the so-called “Blessing of the Sun,”
last verified communication from the Sun Temple Colony
34
Sun Temple Colony
F
ar across the Arcadian Ocean, the shattered
remains of Azlant ascend from the sea like
drowning skeletons, broken lands desperately
gasping for breath in mockery of the fallen civilization.
Beyond a maze of jagged cliffs, the decayed remains of
the sacred city of Nal-Vashkin rise high above the water,
its churches and spires still resonating with perversions
of divine glory. The once-holy shrines hold irresistible
riches and dangerous guardians, tempting foolhardy
explorers to trespass on these forbidden grounds. Horrible
abominations lurk among the island’s ruins—slithering
oozes of searing f lame that seek to usurp the minds and
bodies of treasure-seekers toward worship of an unseen
master. The strange, alien architecture of the buildings
traps the souls of restless dead and attracts horrors from
incomprehensible dimensions. Everywhere, weird lights
f licker and things of primordial fire roam, birthed from a
reawakened Azlanti experiment—a godling entrapped by
mortal man, long slumbering in the Sun Temple.
The island’s crumbling structures also host an age-old
conf lict, as the descendants of a lost Andoren colony wage
holy war with those whose minds have been tainted by the
awakened godling opposed by those who reject the fearsome
horror. Orbiting high overhead, a mysterious artifact focuses
the rays of the sun into a searing column of divine fire,
bringing life to the unnatural being that rests within the
temple and fiery destruction to those who oppose it. But hope
lies hidden among the towering spires of Old Azlant, and
scorched paths of burned earth reveal mysterious treasures
and powerful magics for the adventurous to rediscover.
These secrets and more await reclamation, and may yet undo
the horrific errors of the island’s lost progenitors to bring
rest to the tumultuous conf licts that rage within the ruins.
bringing its light to bear on the cracked crystalline dome
of the grand temple, which causes the halo of its smoldering
aurora to f lare menacingly as magma-like oozes f low forth
from the temple’s yawning, eye-shaped gate, like tears of
living f lame.
History
Of all the ways in which the ancient Azlanti revolted
against their aboleth mentors, perhaps no insult was more
stinging than their deification of divine beings—pure
anathema to the atheistic aboleths. But even beyond their
discovery of faith, it was Azlant’s unprecedented advances
in arcana—and the treacherous pride that accompanied
it—that set Azlant up for its legendary fall.
In one such experiment, ancient priests constructed
an enormous, f loating, magical lens that orbited the
central Sun Temple dedicated to their half-dozen solar
deities, focusing the sacred light of celestial conjunctions
on the temple’s crystal dome. Their original intentions
are long lost, and whether they intended to call down
an aspect of a benevolent solar deity or at last remove
the negative inf luence of the demon lord Nurgal from
Golarion’s mother star is unknown. Whatever their
purpose, the priests succeeded in cultivating a raw,
earthly incarnation of a protoplasmic sun god, before
the cataclysm of Earthfall brought their foul experiment
to an end.
For thousands of years, the Sun Temple’s crystal dome
lay collapsed and the celestial lens was knocked out of
alignment. Eventually, colonists from Andoran arrived and
settled the island, generations living and dying among the
unforgiving environment and crumbling shrines. Then,
some 3 centuries ago, after a series of devastating raids
by Mordant Spire elves, a few dozen surviving colonists
desperately prayed for protection within the Sun Temple,
pleading for deliverance. The thick, golden substance that
oozed forth in response from the temple’s central tiled pool
was interpreted as a gift from the gods, and exposing this
“gift” to sunlight for the first time in thousands of years,
the colonists unknowingly awakened the Sun Temple’s
long-starved godling. Its pitifully shrunken form charged
by the sun’s warming rays, the incarnation named itself
Nuruu’gal, telepathically promising protection in exchange
for sustenance and supplication, appearing as a comforting
“inner eye” of serenity in the minds of the colonists.
Under their protector’s guidance, the colonists rebuilt
the Sun Temple and rediscovered the f lame of guidance—the
means of controlling the orbiting celestial lens—using it to
refocus the device to nurture the embryonic godling and ward
off further attack by the Mordant Spire elves. For decades
the primordial deity grew in power and desire within its
opulent tiled pool, but not all trusted the whispered mental
urgings of the ever-growing ooze. Soon a schism developed
Appearance
High above a bleached boneyard of wave-ravaged shipwrecks
perch the decayed temples of the Azlanti city of Nal-Vashkin.
Strange lights f licker among the fragmented shrines and
beckon the unwary deeper into the tangled undergrowth
of the island. Smoldering auroras halo the ruins even in
the bright of day, and the burn of ozone permeates the air.
Towering spires and copulas penetrate the island’s thick
canopy, dwarfing more recent human habitations built
among the once-glorious edifices of the old empire. An
enormous, bronze-mounted lens transits the island in a lazy
and wandering orbit, its focused beam setting vegetation
alight and carving trails like cauterized wounds through
the dense foliage. Everywhere are the crumbling walls of a
ruined civilization—some built in strange, sharp angles,
others curved like sections of spheres. Above all looms the
imposing edifice of the Sun Temple, perched on high, rocky
ground scorched black by the searing beams of the gigantic
lens. Occasionally, the mysterious device pauses in its orbit,
35
41
Sun Temple Colony
0
1000
2000
feet
4000
PARCHED
LANDS
SUN
TEMPLE
CULT
COLONY
OUTCAST
VILLAGE
WILL-O’-WISP
GARDENS
AZLANTI
RUINS
RUINED
VILLAGE
BONE COVE
36
Sun Temple Colony
between those loyal to their savior and those who recognized
this false god as sacrilege to Abadar. As the colony tore itself
asunder, the godling became threatened by those who would
attempt to undermine its worship, and thus labored toward
the creation of the first tears of Nuruu’gal: sentient oozes
able to inhabit human bodies, which it sent forth to subvert
those who would not worship willingly.
With the godling’s true intentions exposed, the division
between the factions was complete. For 300 years, holy
war has raged between those loyal to Nuruu’gal and those
who reject the unholy abomination. The few outcasts who
retained their sanity attempted scattered communications
with their homeland, but rescue has never arrived, and the
stalemate continues.
Nurgal and Ancient Azlant
Azlanti mythology is complex and often vexing to
scholars. Priests of the ancient empire assigned confusing
contradictions to gods of their pantheon, and the role of
one deity was often inexorably bound to the portfolio of
another. Such is the case of the demon lord Nurgal, who
the Azlanti believed emerged from the underworld during
the summer months to climb the shoulders of those
deities who represented the sun’s nurturing aspects. Once
perched upon their backs, Nurgal would whisper great evils,
distracting the gods and causing an inadvertent unleashing
of the full fury of the sun upon Golarion, causing scorching
summers and devastating droughts. In this way, Nurgal
represented the negative aspects of the sun’s power, and
came to be known as the Shining Scourge.
Whether the Azlanti Sun Temple experiments with the
celestial lens were intended to harvest the raw power of
the sun, prevent drought by averting Nurgal’s influence, or
summon an earthly incarnation for worship is now unknown,
but the Azlanti did succeed in capturing a corrupted
simulacrum of something in the mortal realm, in the form of
an insatiable protoplasmic godling. The fact that the insane
creature now residing within the Sun Temple refers to itself
by the derivative name “Nuruu’gal” only bolsters the theory
that the Azlanti priest brought forth some maddened
incarnation of the demon lord to the Material Plane.
Nurgal’s domains are Chaos, Evil, Fire, and Sun, and
his favored weapon is the heavy mace—treat worshipers
of Nuruu’gal as worshipers of Nurgal.
Residents
While many dangerous creatures call this place home, the
most prevalent inhabitants of Nal-Vashkin are the whiterobed cultists who control most of the island. Roughly
400 followers of Nuruu’gal inhabit a commune among the
spherical domes of the old temples, with the most devout
living on the Sun Temple grounds. Outsiders in conversation
with these residents find them exceedingly polite but
intrusively inquisitive, the acolytes’ speech punctuated by
long pauses as they try to use their symbiote-granted detect
thoughts ability to pry for information. The presence of the
parasitic oozes among the cultists means even innocentlooking villagers may be capable of obliterating blasphemers
with fiery rays. Over time, the few islanders not given over
to the godling’s control have given up trying to identify
which villagers are uninhabited “breeders” and which are
sterile host symbiotes, giving all acolytes a wide berth.
Over time, the parasitic oozes tend to warp their hosts’
bodies, with extra digits, useless vestigial limbs, second
mouths, or extra eyes common among inhabited cultists.
After years serving their primordial god, the most powerful
infested adepts sometimes undergo a startling change when
the fiery seed within them germinates fully, transforming
them into shining beacons of searing fire. From then on
they refer to themselves collectively as “Nuruu’gal’s shining
one,” but scholars across Golarion recognize such creatures
as shining children, strange and unknowable entities
often associated with ancient Thassilon (see page 245 of the
Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2). Such creatures serve Nuruu’gal
on the Sun Temple’s parched grounds, though in many
ways more like advisors than worshipers, and occasionally
inf lict blazing destruction upon blasphemers.
Farther west, banished to broken slivers of islands and
under constant siege, are the 200 huddled outcasts who
still follow the old ways of Abadar. Nuruu’gal’s cult sees
these blasphemers as cattle to be harvested in the service
of symbiotes or pests to be incinerated. While the villagers
are well defended by powerful weapons salvaged from the
ruins, the items unfortunately do not provide food or water,
and finding sustenance is a constant struggle, as scouts
and spies from the colony make such simple activities as
fishing and farming dangerous ventures.
Other creatures thrive among the ruins as well. In
addition to the normal dangers of an oceanic island—from
reefclaws and sharks to less common horrors like chuuls—
the intense divine fires created by the temple’s f loating
lens sometimes attracts the attention of fire elementals
and magma mephits, who slip through the thin planar
fabric at the beam’s termination. Occasionally cultists of
Nuruu’gal tame these fearsome elementals, but more often
than not the creatures roam about in wild rampages. Not
all tears of Nuruu’gal are able to bond with a host, either,
and these creatures sometimes grow to terrible size and
are renamed “fire puddings” by the inhabitants. Some
cultists suffer a horrific fate when the warping effect of
symbiotic bonding goes awry, and wander the island as
fiery amoebas known as gibbering hosts. Ghosts, will-o’wisps, and even the occasional demon can be found among
certain temple districts.
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Relations and Trade
brought about by ooze possession, the cult does not allow all
villagers such bonds, no matter how fanatically devoted to
Nuruu’gal they are. The gifted consider these families little
more than breeding stock for future ooze hosts.
This arrangement does not satisfy all of Nuruu’gal’s
villagers. Some have grown resentful after decades of
faithful worship fail to reward them with their god’s
ultimate gift. Others simply grow tired of the oppressive
treatment of the lower caste. Unless something changes
soon, it’s possible that a schism may result in an exodus
of untainted refugees from the village, either joining with
their hereditary enemies or forming a third camp on the
island. The current mouthpiece for these discontented
citizens is Xiola Chelman (CN female human sorcerer 5),
who represents the “fertile families” and clashes often with
Olibrax. Any such defectors would be valuable informants
if their loyalty to Nuruu’gal could be overcome, and welltimed diplomacy could even reveal the whereabouts of
the f lame of guidance, secrets to the lens’s destruction, or
hidden means of infiltrating the Sun Temple.
Haunted Azlanti Ruins: Once crowded with archives and
libraries, these bizarre ruins have strangely angled, alien
architecture that occasionally captures the souls of those who
die here, and the unfortunates denied eternal rest haunt this
cursed area. Telekinetic outbursts of haunts and poltergeist
are common, and full ectoplasmic manifestations occur
regularly. Many of these visible specters show signs of burn
trauma, and are unable to enter certain areas or cross roads
leading out of this district. Many of the ghosts are hostile,
driven insane by their souls’ capture, but some are more
sympathetic, providing aid and even important knowledge
gathered among these ruins by long-dead generations. The
strange angles of these ruins also attract dangerous hounds
of Tindalos (see page 158 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2),
which are known to stalk trespassers.
The Outcast Village: Roofs of shining silver dotting
the jagged crags of the eastern isles mark the domain of
those colonists not swayed into the worship of Nuruu’gal.
Now led by Kjel Vanderholt (LN male human cleric of
Abadar 9), these villagers struggle to maintain civilization
and freedom under the cult’s constant assaults. Living
under the protective wards of highly polished silver roofs
and in underground bunkers carved over centuries on
interconnected islands, these villagers subsist on fish and
seafood gathered in long-lined nets and crab traps dangled
from the tall cliffs of the village. Fresh water is scarce, so
the recent discovery by hunt-captain Theodan Rijne (NG
male human ranger 5) of an Azlanti water purification
device was a major cause for celebration, as it makes the
refugees less vulnerable to siege.
Long ago, investigations among the mainland ruins
discovered a weakness of the celestial lens, and the villagers
constructed ref lective roofs out of beaten silver salvaged
With the nearest civilization a thousand miles away, and the
cult warding off pirates and elven raiders with the celestial
lens, normal comforts and commodities are rare among
the colonies. While silver, gold, and more mysterious
precious metals are commonplace, food not harvested
from the sea is priceless. Salvaging items and supplies from
sunken vessels in Bone Cove is a popular, if dangerous,
endeavor. Desperate excavations of Azlanti ruins within
each village’s territory have created something of an
arms race between the opposed forces, and both sides are
fortified with ancient weapons and powerful technology
that craftsmen from each contingent work frantically to
restore, ever seeking that item or lost secret that might tip
the balance of power. Colonial reactions to outsiders are
mixed, as any new person could be a spy from the opposing
camp, and while both sides are eager to gain new allies,
most residents would rather see newcomers dead than in
the hands of the enemy, and anyone attempting to obtain
knowledge or possession of their fabulous discoveries
must be dealt with swiftly and permanently.
Sites of Interest
The ruins of the city of Nal-Vashkin are rife with danger,
monsters, and intrigue, and that’s just the civilized
districts. Below are several areas for PCs to explore.
Bone Cove: The bleached ribs of numerous sunken ships
that are exposed during low tide give this cove its name.
It is one of the few sea-level entry points onto the island,
and wave-delivered f lotsam litters its beach, with villagers
often fighting over claims of particularly choice treasures
that wash up here. The dunes are dangerous—the area is
lousy with giants crabs and dangerous swarms of their
smaller brood eager for an easy meal. Particularly keen
observers may notice many ships of elven construction
whose remains exhibit evidence of burning, a shocking
display of the power of the island’s orbiting defenses.
The Cult Colony: Built after the abandonment of the
original settlement, the cultists here are currently led
by Olibrax Muulenaar (CE male human cleric of Nurgal
10), and tend to more secular matters than do those who
directly attend the Sun Temple, although most still host
tears of Nuruu’gal. Tamed fire puddings and worse patrol
the perimeter of their claimed lands.
Worship is the heart of village life within the glow of
Nuruu’gal’s temple. Ceremonies for new ooze symbiosis are
elaborate affairs, taking place in the heat of the day upon
ancient black altars of scorched stone; the potential host is
bathed in the searing f lames of the celestial lens, which is
brought into orbit above the village for the occasion. Not
all adepts survive this baptism by fire, but those who do are
afforded great respect and gain the full rights of citizenship
within the church. Well aware of the curse of sterility
38
Sun Temple Colony
from the Azlanti relics. While the primitive mirrored roofs
do not truly threaten the artifact’s destruction, the masters
of the celestial lens know that the ray’s ref lection poses some
threat to the item, so the continuous searing attacks suffered
by previous generations have largely subsided.
The threat of infiltration by tear-possessed hunters is
serious, and many village elders, such as Adara Smeet (LN
female human sorcerer 3), conduct occasional tests of fire
to root out those enthralled by tears of Nuruu’gal. Some do
escape notice, such as Adara’s own son, Narbus Smeet (LN
male human expert 3). Overpowered by a parasitic ooze,
Narbus is forced to relay important
information to the cult. Narbus
struggles daily with his loyalty to
his community and the threat
of destruction should villagers
discover his treachery. Narbus’
right hand is missing, lopped off by
the boy to disguise the extra digits
growing from the inf luence of his
symbiote. His claim to have lost it to
a giant crab is believed by all, but the
multiple gaping mouths sprouting
low on his neck is a problem he will
soon have to deal with lest his sinister
devotions be revealed.
The Parched Lands: The main
grounds that hold the Sun Temple and
its satellite shrines are a bleak, desolate
landscape, scorched by the focused rays of
the celestial lens. Spiral paths of blackened
earth reminiscent of an alien script wind
throughout the area with no discernible destination, and
the searing presence of Nuruu’gal emanating from the
Sun Temple does little to encourage vegetation. Cultists
bearing their god’s gift wander the grounds here, tending
to their master and restoring the ruined observatories to
their former glory, while others leave on secret missions
to recover long-lost items of power from the mainland
or even from undersea ruins. Led by the high priest and
f lame of guidance bearer Iocebus Kurtwieg (CE male human
cleric of Nurgal 14), the loyal adepts of Nuruu’gal tirelessly
erect scaffolds along buildings in efforts to repair them,
but for every standing one, three burned scaffolds lie in
ruins. Tears of Nuruu’gal occasionally weep forth from
the eye-shaped gate of the nearby Sun Temple and wander
the grounds, leaving more blackened paths in their wake,
along with magma mephits tending to the proto-deity.
Most disturbingly, a dozen high priests who have fully
evolved into shining children wander these observatories,
fearsome guardians who suffer no intrusion or blasphemy
on these grounds, and whose actions are frequently
incomprehensible even to Iocebus himself.
Ruined Village: Perched atop sheer cliffs overlooking
the jumbled remains of ships and galleys littering Bone
Cove are the houses of the original island colony. Here,
the first settlers struggled to survive, but with time they
came to prosper and even f lourish among the ruins of their
ancient forefathers. Overgrown with foliage, these decaying
stone and thatch cottages are unmistakably mundane in
structure compared to the imposing ruins around them. It
is here that the original inhabitants lived until the upheaval
3 centuries ago, and many of the remaining foundations
and walls show signs of destruction—primarily old scorch
marks and melted stones. The schizophrenic Selsaro
Muulenaar (CN male human rogue 4), brother of Olibrax,
is the sole occupant of this abandoned village, and the only
person among the colonists outright rejected as a host by the
tears of Nuruu’gal. His secret collection of recovered Azlanti
items rivals even that of the Sun
Temple’s high priests, and in
rare lucid moments he might
barter with patient PCs. His
most valuable possession is a
stone golem shield guardian
(see pages 158 and 163 of the
Pathfinder RPG Bestiary) that
always lurks nearby.
Will-o’-Wisp
Gardens:
The ancient Azlanti in
this area cultivated will-o’wisps like tulips, capturing the enraged and immortal
specimens in fragile glass globes to provide unnatural
lighting for their urban avenues. While few globes have
survived intact, their inhabitants have, and now these freed
will-o’-wisps roam the island in search of dying creatures on
which to feed. Even now, gangs or “strings” of the creatures
still gather here nightly. The allegiance and loyalty of each
string differs according to the whim of its leader, but if
properly coerced, the ancient and mysterious beings know
much of the island’s current and former inhabitants, and
may provide important information to adventurers.
The Sun Temple Campaign
The lost Sun Temple colony is a perfect opportunity for
characters to explore the magical ruins of an advanced
society, or be quickly swept up in the dramatic intrigue of an
ages-old religious conf lict. Some residents might enthrall
or subvert PCs into the worship of their profane deity, while
others might recruit them to the underground resistance.
The Sun Temple Colony is a legend throughout much of the
Inner Sea, especially in Andoran, and there are any number
of reasons for players to want to go—fame, treasure, ancient
knowledge, and more. While low-level characters can quickly
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41
find themselves in over their heads, enterprising GMs who
want to make the lost colony a focus for adventures can start
laying plans well before PCs arrive, providing tantalizing
clues or fragmentary evidence of the location of the colony.
The journey is arduous, and the Mordant Spire elves that
guard the drowned continent are a major threat. GMs
may have low-level characters undergo a quest for magical
transportation to circumvent these dangers, or allow the
battles with (and potential capture by) Mordant Spire elves
to provide the first few levels of adventure.
GMs with low-level parties should be careful to facilitate
character survival. While Nuruu’gal’s followers undoubtedly
seek to assimilate any new party on their shores, the
outcast colony can provide support when it’s most needed,
potentially enlisting the PCs or hiding them among their
secret bunkers. The GM can demonstrate the overwhelming
power of the celestial lens via indirect aerial attacks on the
village, allowing the PCs to see its power firsthand while
still running for cover. Such an obviously powerful weapon
is likely itself a significant hook for many players.
Along with the island’s central conf lict, other adventures
also await. The PCs could explore the exposed wrecks of
Bone Cove. They may wish to recover a rumored cargo
said to be lost in the hold of a particular ship and now
guarded by aquatic monsters, or perhaps the PCs witness
the destruction of an elven ship by the celestial lens, and
must decide between rescuing the few survivors from
the burning vessel or leaving the xenophobic elves to
their fate (and perhaps claiming their cargo). Of course,
haunted corridors and magically trapped passages below
the Azlanti ruins could host several dungeons’ worth of
adventures and wonders. Hazards, traps, and creatures
both living and undead have long awaited the breaking of
arcane seals that might afford them freedom.
“great sun weapon” brings them to the colony in the first
place. The existence of the f lame of guidance might remain
secret for many levels as PCs investigate decaying shrines
and tombs to discover the relationship of the companion
artifact to the celestial lens. However, only at the highest of
these levels should the PCs’ path take them into the upper
temple grounds surrounding the Sun Temple, for fearsome
guardians in the form of shining children reside there. The
majority of the cultists, however, do not live on the main
temple grounds, and the outcasts may encourage small raids
on significant religious sites, chipping away at the cult.
While the cult is no doubt the most pervasive threat
on the island, other dangerous creatures lurk among
the ruins. Will-o’-wisps typically avoid attacks on wellequipped adventuring parties, preferring to feed on the
fear that follows such groups, but isolated individuals
can attract the attention of the enigmatic creatures, and
explorers might find the bodies of colonists in the vicinity
of the will-o’-wisp gardens, their dead faces frozen in fear.
Certain bargains might be struck with these creatures
in exchange for information on events they have silently
witnessed throughout their long centuries. In addition,
ghosts haunt the linear architecture of the island and
can prove dangerous adversaries, but need not all be
murderous. The souls of important colonists may be
trapped here, willing to aid those who side with their
descendants, while others may even present puzzles to
be solved and mysteries to be uncovered. The presence of
the Sun Temple’s corrupt inhabitant draws demons to the
island as well, and their presence may clue the PCs in to
the true nature and origins of Nuruu’gal.
After years of security provided by the celestial lens,
colonists of both factions have grown used to the artifact’s
protection from offshore threats, although the elves of the
Mordant Spire may be waiting patiently for a breach in this
defense, and any measures the PCs take to disable the lens
may well draw a terrible coastal raid from waiting elven
vessels. These aggressive elves suffer no excuse for trespass
on the lands of lost Azlant, and believers, blasphemers,
and adventurers alike can expect no quarter from the
hostile raiders. Diplomatic PCs may find themselves in a
position to broker temporary truces between two sides of
the conf lict in order to combat the third.
By 7th level, adventurers can hold their own against most
cultists without being immediately overcome, and may
have more freedom to explore the area while the cult plans
new ways to destroy them. Experienced adventurers are
attractive hosts for Nuruu’gal’s offspring, and cultists may
raid the adventurers’ camp or wait in ambush to capture
party members for the symbiotic oozes—it’s possible that
the PCs are even lured to the island under false pretenses by
someone who’s made a bargain with the cult. Alternatively,
the horrific creatures may infiltrate a PC camp to possess
them or those important to the party. NPCs held captive by
the internal parasites could be forced to betray the party,
and releasing possessed villagers before the symbiotes
destroy them from within can be a high-drama challenge.
Many parties reaching the island will no doubt be
captivated by the threat of the celestial lens, and seek to
discover the secret to its control. Perhaps rumors of this
As players reach 14th level and beyond, they pose a very
real threat to the cult and Nuruu’gal itself, and those of
good alignment likely seek the destruction of the godling.
Indeed, it may be that parties who encounter the island
colony for the first time at high level do so at the behest
of religious authorities, specifically charged with rooting
out or harnessing the ancient heresy. The presence of the
shining children is also an enigma, given that the strange
40
Sun Temple Colony
creatures historically have little to do with demons, and
much could be learned about their bizarre motives if a PC
could capture one or supplant Nuruu’gal. PCs of high level
can no doubt devise a means to detect the presence of the
symbiotic oozes and effective ways to separate them from
their hosts, leaving them free to explore the outlying ruins
of the island with little interference. If they go up against
the cult directly, however, Nuruu’gal’s high priests can use
the celestial lens to great effect in combat. If the PCs can gain
control of the f lame of guidance and learn to manipulate the
lens, they may be able to destroy the cult and starve the
godling until it leaves the safety of its temple to hunt the
PCs on a battlefield of their choosing—or they may choose
a frontal assault on the Sun Temple.
Even as events escalate on the island, there are always
hidden chambers to explore and secret tombs to investigate,
all of which promise powerful magic and lost Azlanti
knowledge. And if the PCs control the lens, it may be that the
island itself is the greatest treasure of all: a new stronghold
defended by a powerful artifact and inhabited by grateful
subjects. A perfect place for a new headquarters for the
PCs—at least until the Mordant Spire elves come calling.
55–71 2d6 salamanders
and 1d6 elder fire elementals 15
Bestiary 124, 240
72–88 1d4 nalfeshnees
16
Bestiary 65
89–100 Nuruu’gal
21
see page 42
* 1d6 ooze-possessed human adepts 3
** 2d6 ooze-possessed human adepts 3, with 1 tear of Nuruu’gal
*** Ooze-possessed clerics 12
the Celestial lens
The scorched and blackened Sun Temple grounds stand
in stark, barren contrast to the gleaming, white coral
buildings of the area. Each domed observatory is built
along a radiant curve in an orrery-like arrangement,
and their structure and placement highlight significant
celestial alignments. Perched on the highest bluff, the
Sun Temple glows even in daylight, and radiates extreme
heat (see page 444 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook)
throughout the area. Constructed in classic Azlanti style,
the high-domed shrines here are seamlessly grown from
a coral-like structure by some lost arcane method. The
spiraling columns of the main temple support a massive
crystal dome, and lens-like windows allow as much light
as possible into the grand central hall. A symbolic eyeshaped portal grants supplicants entrance into the holy
site, and allows the egress of the tears of Nuruu’gal, who
ooze forth from this “weeping gate” in search of victims
to bend to the service of their master. Within, the godling
undulates restlessly in a massive tiled pool, bathed in the
searing rays of the crystal dome that focuses the light of
the celestial lens. High above, that gigantic artifact orbits
these grounds in a slow elliptical transit, the air below
it shimmering as a vertical column of focused energy
feeds the voracious proto-god resting within. Everywhere
wander the most powerful cult members, supervised by
shining children constantly working to maintain the
opulence and grandeur of their master’s abode.
Random Encounters
Low Level
d% 1–11
12–19
20–34
35–46
47–56
57–72
73–78
79–91
92–100
Result
Average CR
1 reefclaw
1
2d4 fire beetles
2
1d4 Small fire elementals
3
1d4 giant crabs
4
2d4 burning skeletons
4
1 cult raiding party*
5
1 phase spider
5
1d6 Medium fire elementals 6
1 tear of Nuruu’gal
6
Source
Bestiary 2 234
Bestiary 33
Bestiary 124
Bestiary 50
Bestiary 250
see page 43
Bestiary 226
Bestiary 124
see page 43
Medium Level
d% 1–12
13–26
27–39
40–51
52–62
63–74
75–87
88–100
Result
Average CR
1 ghost
7
1 cult inquisition**
7
1d6 gibbering hosts
8
1d4 chuuls
9
1d4 fire puddings
9
1d4 greater fire elementals
11
1 shining child
12
3d6 will-o’-wisps
13
Celestial Lens (Major Artifact)
Aura strong evocation; CL 20th
Slot none; Weight 2,400 lbs.
Source
Bestiary 144
see page 43
see page 42
Bestiary 46
see page 42
Bestiary 124
Bestiary 2 245
Bestiary 277
Description
The celestial lens is a 12-foot-diameter lens mounted in a
rune-covered circular frame of strange, alien metal, floating
in a permanent orbit around the Sun Temple. Several smaller
lenses of similar design hover around the primary lens like
a bizarre orrery, moving into place to focus the arcane rays
of the device. The ancient Azlanti created the celestial lens to
capture the light of sacred eclipses and solar conjunctions, as
well as the refracted darkness found between stars.
Celestial rays can be directed in an extremely powerful
beam of energy that manifests as a vertical column of
searing energy blasts focused directly below the celestial lens.
Depending on the will of the controller and GM adjudication
High Level
d% 1–16
17–34
35–54
Result
Average CR
2d6 vrocks
14
1d4 shining children
14
1d4 cult high priests***
14
Source
Bestiary 69
Bestiary 2 245
see page 43
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for inclement weather, such blasts deal between 5d6 and
20d6 points of damage in a 5-foot-radius cylinder extending
from the lens to the ground or target. During the day, half
the damage is fire damage, but the other half results directly
from divine power and is therefore not reduced by resistance
to fire-based attacks. At night, the device focuses distant
starlight, and the maximum damage is only 10d6, although
the lens does not function at all for 1 hour before sunrise and 1
hour after sunset. The lens moves with a constant speed of 20
feet and damages everything caught in the affected areas each
round. Victims may make a DC 25 Reflex save for half damage.
The lens orbits at a static height of 100 feet from the ground
and moves at a speed of 20 feet per round. It cannot be stopped
or accelerated, although the path of the transit can be altered by
a user in possession of the flame of guidance. When not directed,
the lens maintains its last commanded path, eventually curving
into a new elliptical orbit around the sun temple, scorching a path
through whatever lies below. The user can alter both the damage
(up to the maximum for the current lighting conditions) and the
orbit in any direction, but the lens must move 20 feet each round,
and cannot travel more than 3 miles from the temple in any
direction before it curves back around and begins returning.
deity and the alien angles of the Azlanti ruins have also
created a few other unique strains of monsters.
Fire Puddings (CR 7): These black pudding variants
are rare tears of Nuruu’gal that failed to find hosts. Over
time, the small oozes grow to huge proportions after
feeding voraciously on wild game and lost outcasts. Such
specimens are no longer capable of possessing humanoids
and lose most special abilities; use the statistics of a black
pudding, remove its acid and corrosion abilities, and add
the fire subtype and the burn ability (2d6, DC 20).
Gibbering Hosts (CR 5): Not all hosts of a tear of Nuruu’gal
undergo metamorphosis into shining children. In those rare
cases in which the symbiotic relationship sours, a somewhat
more horrific transformation takes place. The host begins
to lose solidity, form, and sanity as the two creatures fuse
into a single horrible monstrosity bereft of humanity. These
pathetic creatures wander the island wailing in a bizarre
cacophony in the ancient Azlanti tongue. Such monsters use
the statistics for gibbering mouthers, although they lack the
ground manipulation special ability and instead have the
fire subtype and burn ability (1d6, DC 19)
Nuruu’gal (CR 21): The corrupted earthly aspect of Nurgal
housed within the Sun Temple is a warped monstrosity, an
insane proto-god that has no place in the mortal realm.
Should adventurers seek the creature’s destruction, use
the variant abilities for a shoggoth that follow for the mad
godling. Rather than an enormous bulk of black slime and
gaping maws, the aspect of Nuruu’gal is a glowing, burning
mass of raw solar protoplasm, losing the aquatic subtype but
gaining the fire subtype. The amoeba-like form of Nuruu’gal
gains the giant creature simple template, swelling from Huge
to Gargantuan, and is able to communicate telepathically
at a range of 100 feet. The creature’s maddening cacophony
ability buzzes with repetitious prayers in Azlanti. The
shoggoth’s engulf ability deals fire damage rather than acid,
and the proto-god gains the abilities listed below. Should
the PCs deny the godling its normal diet of the nurturing
rays of the celestial lens for days or weeks, the GM may elect to
remove the giant template to display this malnourishment
and reward PCs for their foresight before Nuruu’gal oozes
forth from the Sun Temple to destroy its tormentors.
Shroud of Flame (Su): Nuruu’gal burns with the energy
of a dying star, giving it the burn ability (2d10, DC 33). All
creatures within 20 feet of it must make a DC 33 Ref lex save
at the start of their turns to avoid taking 2d10 points of fire
damage. Creatures attacking Nuruu’gal with natural or nonreach melee weapons take 2d10 points of fire damage with
each successful hit. The save DC is Constitution-based.
Weep Spawn (Su): Nuruu’gal’s amorphous form is able
to undergo a sort of mitosis, shedding small bits of its
protoplasmic body to create up to 1d4 tears of Nuruu’gal
each day, which creep forth to absorb new supplicants into
the mad creature’s f lock.
Destruction
The light of a full moon must be focused through the celestial
lens at maximum intensity on a flawless silver mirror no less
than 10 feet in diameter (DC 20 Craft [glass] to cast). The doubly
reflected light shatters the otherwise indestructible glass of the
celestial lens, causing the whole lens to tumble to the ground.
Flame of Guidance (Major Artifact)
Aura strong transmutation; CL 20th
Slot none; Weight 1 lb.
Description
This charm resembles an orrery composed of small, freely
orbiting orbs circling a candle-sized flame. The device functions
as an ioun stone, and when released, the flame perches above
the user’s head, remaining stationary relative to the user as
the smaller planetary orbs take up elliptical transit around it.
When in use, the flame grants the user a natural armor bonus
of +4, the fire subtype, immunity to fire, and vulnerability to
cold. If within 3 miles of the celestial lens, the user can control
the horizontal orbital direction of the item, but cannot make
the lens stop or move it vertically from its standard position of
100 feet from the ground. The wearer takes a –4 penalty on all
saves against the special abilities of the godling Nuruu’gal and
possession attempts by tears of Nuruu’gal.
Destruction
Holding the item in a maximum-intensity blast of the celestial
lens for 3 rounds destroys it.
Variant Monsters
While Nuruu’gal is treated an exceptional variation of
a shoggoth (Bestiary 249), the presence of the primordial
42
Sun Temple Colony
Tear of Nuruu’gal
Unwilling victims are granted no abilities, and are instead
tortured with searing pain. Victims take automatic burn
damage each round, and must succeed on a DC 21 Fortitude
save or become nauseated for 1d4 rounds. While this occurs,
the ooze may telepathically appeal to the host for control of
the body to prevent further pain (treat control as magic jar,
with no receptacle required). The ooze may vacate the body of
a host as a full-round action, bursting forth in a protoplasmic
expulsion, dealing double burn damage.
A victim may attempt to expel the creature from his or her
body as a full-round action with a DC 21 Fortitude save, but
each attempt results in automatic burn damage from the
ooze, and damage from the creature’s violent exit if successful
(as if the ooze had left voluntarily). Remove curse expels the
creature, if the caster succeeds on a DC 21 caster level check.
The save DCs are Constitution-based.
A slithering blob of amoeba-like protoplasm shines with f lame,
warping the air around it in a searing mirage.
Tear of Nuruu’gal
XP 2,400
CR 6
CN Small ooze (fire)
Init –5; Senses blindsight 60 ft.; Perception –3
Defense
AC 6, touch 6, flat-footed 6 (–5 Dex, +1 size)
hp 62 (5d8+40)
Fort +8, Ref –4, Will –2
DR 5/—; Immune fire, ooze traits; SR 17
Weaknesses vulnerability to cold
Offense
Speed 10 ft., climb 10 ft.
Melee slam +7 (1d6+3 plus burn and grab)
Ranged ranged touch –1 (by spell)
Special Attacks burn (1d6, DC 19), constrict (1d6+3), symbiosis
At will—detect thoughts (DC 7), produce flame
3/day—searing light
First spawned by the primordial godling Nuruu’gal in
the lost Azlanti city of Nal-Vashkin, these fiery, parasitic
oozes contain a portion of the creature’s essence and foul
sentience. The oozes hunt ceaselessly, seeking to force their
amoebic protoplasm into the bodies of humanoids to turn
their hosts to the service of their master, whether the hosts
are willing or not. After many years of possession, the host
and the symbiote may undergo a strange metamorphosis,
exploding into a horrible light that catalyzes into a being
known as a shining child.
Statistics
Base Atk +3; CMB +4 (+8 grapple); CMD 9 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Ability Focus (symbiosis), Toughness, Weapon Focus (slam)
Skills Climb +12, Stealth +2
Languages telepathy 100 ft.
Ecology
Environment any land
Organization solitary or pack (2–6)
Treasure none
Special Abilities
Symbiosis (Ex) As part of a constrict
attack, a tear of Nuruu’gal can attempt to
forcefully inhabit a humanoid victim’s body.
A DC 21 Fortitude save resists this intrusion
and renders immunity to that ooze’s
symbiosis ability for 24 hours; failure
means the ooze spends a full-round
action inhabiting its new host. Once
absorbed, the ooze grants incredible
boons to willing hosts, or slowly
incinerates unwilling victims. A willing
host ceases aging, is sustained as if wearing
a ring of sustenance, and becomes sterile.
He or she also gains the fire subtype, spell
resistance, and telepathic abilities of the tear
of Nuruu’gal. A host can use the creature’s
spell-like abilities, with save DCs calculated
using the host’s Hit Dice and Charisma score,
although daily limits of powers still apply. Damage
dealt to the host body does not harm the ooze.
43
41
Tumen
In the last days of the their rule, a new sort of madness
consumed the Four Pharaohs. In the deepest deserts, miles
from any spring, they commanded water. From the dunes and
furrows, they raised a towering monument. In the middle of
the ever-shifting sands, they demanded permanence.
In their power, the pharaohs realized this dream, a city built
on the corpses of a hundred thousand slaves. When it was
finished, Tumen stood as a monument to human will—but also
to hubris. For the pharaohs’ great sin was not in the city’s
construction, but in treating their wonder like a trifle.
For all their power, the pharaohs had forgotten one thing:
The desert is a living creature. And she will not be mocked.
—Anak Mubara, The Fall of the Four
44
Tumen
O
History
f all the fabulous works commissioned during
the reigns of the great Osirian pharaohs, none
claimed the lives of more slaves during its
construction than the city of Tumen. When a conclave of
four pharaohs set out to relocate their empire’s capital on
a whim, they agreed upon the Heavenscape, an impressive
vertical cliff in the middle of a trackless desert, to house
their nation’s newest wonder. At the height of their
arrogance, the sheer impracticality of building a city
on vertical perches appealed to the Four Pharaohs of
Ascension. Determined to rival the majesty of the very
heavens with their creation, each pharaoh designed
his or her own community and set it upon a separate
ledge resting on the side of the mountainous cliff. But
in order for their plans to be viable, the four ledges had
to be interconnected by an underground complex of
cavernous stairs so that goods could be transported from
the outside world. As such, an entire generation of slaves
labored in darkness to drill deep into the mountain rock
and hand-carve the thousands of required steps. Finally,
when the city was ready, the pharaohs unveiled a dark
source of magic to supply their civic creation with lifegiving water.
Today, Tumen lies in ruins. Impractical since the
moment of its conception, the city collapsed as soon as the
Four Pharaohs departed in death, yet rumors of its ancient
secrets persist to this day. Whenever the desert sandstorms
see fit to unearth the ruins of Tumen, invariably at least
one group of treasure-hunters mounts an expedition to
the Heavenscape—a voyage from which few return.
The Four Pharaohs of Ascension originally consisted
of four feuding despots each contending for supremacy
over Osirion: the Fiend Pharaoh, the Radiant Pharaoh,
the Cerulean Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh of Numbers.
While the details remain uncertain, in –1498 ar, the Four
Pharaohs formed an improbable alliance in which they
used powerful magic to bind their fates together. If one
grew stronger, so would the others. And if any one among
them died, that fate too would be shared. In this way, the
pharaohs immunized themselves against the possibility
of internal treachery or assassination. With Osirion’s
rulers united, the nation prospered both militarily and
culturally. The pharaohs carefully guarded the source of
their pact magic, sealing it in an ancient pyramid known
as Ahn’Selohta. Rightly or wrongly, the pharaohs were
eternally suspicious that would-be usurpers were seeking
to steal the power of their pact magic in order to replicate
the pharaohs’ success for themselves. As their paranoia
grew, the Four Pharaohs quickly became discontent with
how far away the capital of Sothis was from the pyramid
that housed the foundation of their power. In –1476 ar, the
Four Pharaohs decided to build a new capital, one closer
to Ahn’Selohta, in order to better watch over it. As was
typical for their dynamic, the Four Pharaohs were unable
to agree upon a thousand details, but the quartet at last
reached an accord when they hit upon the idea of having
four interconnected sub-cities—one for each of them to
design as he or she saw fit.
The construction required a truly mammoth and costly
undertaking. Unable to afford the decades and generations
such a project would normally require, the pharaohs
supplied Tumen’s overseers with legions of slaves sourced
from their constant military victories to the south and to
the west. They also began with magic: the initial tunnels
within the Heavenscape were carefully bored using
charmed bulettes—giant land sharks capable of grinding
through the mountain—as well as other burrowing
monstrosities. Then followed the slaves. Typically, the
slave masters would drug their slave armies or brainwash
them with religious fervor so that the workers could toil
well past the point of natural exhaustion. When possible,
the pharaohs’ sorcerers hastened the slaves with magic and
summoned bound elementals to spearhead the labor.
Tumen’s completion inspired a nationwide celebration,
but the new capital’s reign was appallingly short. One
pharaoh steadily grew ill from an unknown disease, and
the magic of their pact slowly dragged down the health
of the other three pharaohs. Indeed, although each had
suspicions, the Four Pharaohs never learned which among
them had truly succumbed to sickness and which three
were simply sharing in the fate. Legends state that the
pharaohs eventually accepted that their end was near and
Appearance
At f irst glance, Tumen is four cities in one, each of them
set upon a massive ledge jutting from the titanic face of
a cliff. By careful design, each ledge bulges out of the
cliff face in such a manner that its walls and underside
form an enormous eye staring down at the desert below.
Today, while the ledges themselves remain, time and
erosion have reduced the once-mighty buildings upon
them to ruins. While there are notable exceptions,
typically only the foundations of the strongest buildings
have survived.
Tumen’s single most omnipresent attribute is its
endless volume of sand. While the Heavenscape is
enormous, its presence in a natural sort of gully and the
strange winds of the desert cause it to be periodically
buried almost to its peak. For years or centuries, the city
may be truly lost, only to reappear almost overnight due
to the capricious nature of the wind and local elementals.
The bones of those adventurers who have ignored or
underestimated the speed with which the glorious city
may disappear into the dunes lie bleached and blasted in
sand-choked chambers.
45
51
THE HEAVENSCAPE
RA-INI KA
“THE PRIME”
NEBTITI
“THE WAR PIT”
SETEOPS
“THE AURA”
HATIPHERES
“THE CERULEAN CITY”
KHIZA
“THE PLEBIAN”
Tumen
0
46
600
feet
1200
Tumen
ended their quarrel, arranging to entomb themselves in a
separate pyramid of veinstone nearby.
With the loss of the Four Pharaohs of Ascension, the
magic that powered Tumen’s eldritch aquifer disappeared,
and the city’s days became numbered as its water supply
was gradually depleted. For a time, laborers transported
water up to the individual sub-cities by hand or pack beast,
but such measures only forestalled the inevitable. The
price of survival spiked beyond reason, and the people f led,
leaving Tumen to the mercies of raiders and beasts.
several years, the cult has based itself on the outskirts of
Tumen in order to plunder whatever secrets the Pharaoh of
Numbers might have left behind. For reasons not yet fully
understood, the integers 56 and 11 held deep spiritual and
mathematical significance for the Pharaoh of Numbers—
and now provide great importance for the cult as well. The
cult incorporates these numbers into its daily activities
whenever possible, hoping to unlock the associated power.
Originally, the Cult bivouacked 56 members within each
sub-city, and combed through the ruins in five groups
of 11 with a single high priest as a leader. Recent losses,
particularly from the predations of the Finless, have made
it more challenging for the cult to maintain the necessary
numeric patterns.
The cult’s current mission leader is Theorex Khai
(see pages 52–53). The Theorex has recently divined the
presence of the Aqualinth deep below the mountain, and
has made recovering the dark artifact the cult’s new goal.
Unfortunately, between the Carvesmen and the Voice,
the cultists he has sent down the dark stairwells below
the sub-cities have returned battered and bloody, if they
return at all.
Residents
Although the desert sands sometimes bury Tumen for
years at a time, the city has never truly been deserted.
The Carvesmen and the Voice: Deep within the darkness
of the heart of the Heavenscape, the descendants of the
ancient slaves who once carved its steps still struggle to
survive. Now regressed into emaciated morlocks of neutral
alignment, the “Carvesmen” still patrol their creation,
barely subsisting off the mountain’s internal ecosystem.
The savage survival of the Carvesmen is even more
miraculous now that an unseen creature known as The
Voice (NE advanced cloaker) has begun to hunt them. The
Voice deploys a small team of elite dark stalker rangers, who
call themselves “His Word.” The Voice seeks to exterminate
every last Carvesman, holding them responsible for their
ancestors’ invasion of the mountainous rock so many
centuries ago. The Carvesmen have an unusual ally,
however, in a lantern archon named Syara. Syara has made
it her mission to protect the vulnerable Carvesmen from
the predations of the Voice while she attempts to lead them
out of their meager existence and into the light. While the
Carvesmen appreciate their glowing sister’s aid, they so far
have refused to leave their ancestral home.
The Finless: Overhanging each cave entrance to
the Heavenscape are several armored bulette fins,
mummified trophies from the enormous land sharks that
once used to bore the mountain’s tunnels. The bulettes’
handlers eventually slew and reanimated the beasts with
necromancy in order to direct their efforts more accurately,
and once the bulettes finished the last of their tunneling,
their handlers removed the creatures’ fins as artwork and
buried their discarded remains under the sands. Recently,
as a result of some unknown magical disturbance, the
“Finless” have again risen, this time as fast zombies. The
creatures now stalk the ruins of Tumen, surfacing only at
night, to take their revenge on whoever they find.
The Cult of the Last Theorem: Tumen’s newest faction
is an insidious cabal that seeks to unlock the dark powers
of lost mathematics. The Cult of the Last Theorem is
aware that one of the Four Pharaohs of Ascension was
an unparalleled genius known only as the Pharaoh of
Numbers—a figure of great interest to them. For the last
Relations and Trade
Although it was only a brief f lash in history many millennia
ago, Tumen was the focal point of a vast amount of commerce
and trade within Osirion’s empire, stretching well beyond
what is now Thuvia and Geb. Camel trains spread from the
great City of Slaves like a spider’s web, and local merchants
were well versed in managing the inherent dangers of
traversing Osirion’s eastern desert. In particular, Tumen
lies close to the Underdunes: canyon-sized ridges of sand
that shift and collapse in the irregular khamsin storms
(powerful stormed augmented by battling elementals).
Those skilled in navigating the maze-like trenches could
extend the reach of their caravans, requiring far less water
per mile once in the protective shade of the Underdunes.
But just as today, inexperienced travelers needed to beware,
as the risk of a sand slide was omnipresent.
More significantly, historical writings corroborate that
Tumen once had its own seaport. Even though the city itself
was more than 30 miles inland from the Inner Sea, camel
trains would head east to the coastline of the Burning Cape
where Tumen had its own commercial and military launch
point known as Shotep-Kara. According to those same texts,
Shotep-Kara boasted secret sea-lanes: routes that would
magically contract the distance required to travel to the far
corners of Osirion’s empire and abroad. Many have gone
in search of these secret sea lanes, but thus far, would-be
explorers have yet to find even the port itself.
After Tumen collapsed, commercial evolution took
hold and all aspects of trade migrated back to Sothis and
its associated communities along the banks of the River
47
51
Sphinx. Adventurers in Tumen seeking to buy supplies or
sell their treasures would do well to journey to the West to
Osirion’s modern-day capital.
gains the fatigued condition as a result of his exhausting
nighttime labor.
It was within Seteops that Tumen’s artisans built what
would soon become one of the Four Pharaohs’ most
important monuments: the Radiant Call. Built in the shape
of a giant open cauldron supported atop four great ankhs,
the Radiant Call comprises thousands of colored stones,
each enchanted with continual f lame. When the cauldron’s
mirrored lid was uncovered and positioned upright, the
Radiant Call focused the stones’ f lames into a sparkling
beacon of light. Osirion’s subjects could spy the
f lickering of the Radiant Call from as far
as Sothis and the River Sphinx to the
west, and to the east from as far as
the banks of the Obari Ocean. By
raising and lowering the Radiant
Call’s cover, Tumen could send
signals to the cities and armies
under its command using
coded messages. Only those
who spoke the “f lash-language”
could decipher the pharaohs’
golden commands. Today, the
Radiant Call has lost its radiance,
thieves having long ago stolen its
fiery stones, but the mirrored plate
remains in place, hinting that someone
might one day resurrect the device.
Hatipheres, “The Cerulean City”: Formerly the heart
of Tumen’s commerce and taxation, this once opulent
district has suffered worst from sandstorms, and now lies
in near-total ruin. One structure, however, has defied both
sandstorms and the onslaught of time: the Palace of Blades.
When the ailing Cerulean Pharaoh abandoned Tumen and
prepared to inter his body in the fabled veinstone pyramid
to the south, he locked the gates of his palace behind him
and ordered his priests to mine the palace with overlapping
blade barrier glyphs. Consequently, it is impossible to walk
within the palace without the individual rooms exploding
into cascades of whirling, blue-tinged scimitars. One of
the Palace of Blades’ guardians remains, the mummified
Te Hapsu (LE male human lich cleric 14). If awakened, the
lich stalks the corridors of the palace in safety, courtesy
of his perpetual castings of air walk and spell immunity to
blade barrier.
Sages hold that within the Palace of Blades, the Cerulean
Pharaoh kept detailed records of the genealogy of all of
Osirion’s nobility. Impossibly, the records are said to set
out not only the history of the empire’s noble ancestors,
but also the names of their unborn descendants eternally
going forward. Many genealogists have come to Hatipheres
in search of these legendary family trees, not only to see
who can trace their lineage to noble blood of the Osirian
Sites of Interest
Each of Tumen’s sub-districts is as unique as the pharaoh
that oversaw its construction.
Nebtiti, “The War Pit”: The locals of the Fiend
Pharaoh’s sub-city quickly nicknamed this district
Nebtiti—“the War Pit”—a name that suited the deadly
general just f ine. Much of the district was
comprised of barracks and armories, and in
its prime, it hosted innumerable parades
of the pharaoh’s armies.
A single structure towers above the
rest, a titanic, panther-headed statue
resting in a form-fitting niche
carved into the mountainside itself.
Almost 100 feet tall, the creature is
actually the Panthereon Ultima (N
Colossal advanced shield guardian
clay golem). Osirion’s greatest
golem-crafters constructed the
Panthereon Ultima to defend Tumen
against the rampage of the next Spawn
of Rovagug, an event that the Pharaoh of
Numbers had predicted would be Tumen’s
most significant threat. Tumen, however, fell well
before any such attack ever came, and the Ultima never
proved to be anything more than an impressive statue.
Many archaeologists and explorers have gone searching
for the Ultima’s missing control amulet in order to seize
command of the legendary creature. In particular, the
Cult of the Last Theorem believes the Fiend Pharaoh
embedded the amulet within his double crown, and that
the pharaoh’s lost headgear now lies somewhere within the
ruins of Nebtiti. As a result, the cult expends significant
resources combing the ruins for it.
Seteops, “The Aura”: Once the most aesthetically
appealing of the four districts, Tumen’s engineers
constructed the Aura under the direction of the Radiant
Pharaoh, a ruler whose beauty was surpassed only by her
insatiable need to be worshiped by the masses. Those
traveling within the Aura need to take special care when
they rest. Anyone sleeping while inside this district has a
10% chance of experiencing an after-echo of the Radiant
Pharaoh’s hold over her slaves. Sleepers who fail a DC 21
Will save rise in their sleep as somnambulists. The afterecho then forces the sleepwalkers to labor in the impossible
task of restoring the dilapidated ruins of Seteops to their
former glory. Assuming victims of the after-echo do not
fall prey to a wandering monster, anyone sleepwalking
awakes at dawn with his free will returned, though he
48
Tumen
Empire, but also to see what secrets the pharaoh’s magical
lists might reveal as to the fate of the current ruler’s line.
Ra-Ini Ka, “The Prime”: The most elevated of the
sub-cities, this was the district in which the Pharaoh of
Numbers constructed Tumen’s greatest places of learning.
In its center is a small, unnatural wasteland, the result
of a failed magical experiment that sought to manipulate
both the power of electrical storms and the matrix of
time. A series of 56 frozen bolts of lightning rip up from
the ground, stabbing 30 feet toward the sky in a jigsaw
pattern. Rather than dispel the experiment, the Pharaoh of
Numbers commanded his numerancers to leave the frozen
storm in place as a magnificent reminder of his dangerous
and beautiful power. Thus, Tumen’s builders carefully
walled off the so-called Lightning Fields. Anyone coming
into contact with a frozen lightning bolt takes 10d6 points
of electrical damage (no save). Forty years ago, a free-willed
f lesh golem named Barome the Spasmic (N male giant
f lesh golem) learned of Tumen’s fabled Lightning Fields
and set out to make the Prime his new home. Whenever
Barome is injured (or otherwise low on power), the golem
simply wanders through the frozen bolts. Barome has
made a makeshift home in one of the nearby ruins, and
while he is suspicious of visitors, he is not overtly hostile.
The golem has learned to evacuate from Tumen and take
shelter at the top of the Heavenscape whenever the storms
or elemental clans come to bury the city.
Khiza, “The Plebian”: Unlike the four sub-cities
above it that the pharaohs carefully engineered, Tumen’s
plebian district evolved naturally over time as housing for
the slaves and paid laborers, expanding in order to meet
the city’s day-to-day needs. Khiza consisted of masses of
dwellings and slave markets for the lower classes that
sprung up at the base of the Heavenscape once Tumen
was constructed.
organizations might have good reason to keep an eye on
the dangerous Cult of the Last Theorem. Now that the cult
has deployed itself in Tumen, someone needs to ensure
they don’t complete their goals—goals that might include
the end of civilization.
As with many legendary locations, Tumen is a tough place
for beginning adventurers to cut their teeth. Early on,
traveling to the city through the dangerous surrounding
deserts can provide plenty of challenges for parties—
perhaps the PCs are part of a caravan attacked by cultists
for supplies, or they become lost in a desert storm only
to stumble upon the dubious safety of the city. If the
PCs struggle at low levels, GMs might make them lucky
enough to befriend Barome the Spasmic, who can teach
them much about how to circumvent obvious dangers in
the ruins.
As the PCs make their first forays into Tumen, they are
likely to encounter patrols of the cult of the Last Theorem,
eager to evict the PCs from the ruins with extreme prejudice.
However, as adventurers are not entirely unknown in the
region, low-level PCs are unlikely to garner the attention
of the cult’s higher-level leadership. The PCs might also
uncover an alien duplicate from the Aqualinth (see page 51)
as it attempts to infiltrate the Cult of the Last Theorem,
and be drawn in by the mystery of the doppelganger-like
creatures serving a dark and ancient artifact deep beneath
the city.
By levels 4–6, as the PCs grow in strength, they should
be ready to face The Voice and His Word. The lantern
archon Syara may take notice of the PCs and attempt to
recruit them to rescue the Carvesmen, perhaps traveling
all the way to whatever Osirian settlement the PCs happen
to be in at the time in order to find aid. While the PCs
may never be able to draw the morlocks from their selfimposed imprisonment, they might at least drive the Voice
from the Heavenscape.
The Tumen Campaign
For treasure-hunters, Tumen is a locale of legend. There
are as many reasons for PCs to come to Tumen as there
are rumors of long-lost treasures and artifacts. As just
one example, many Osirionologists would pay significant
coin to locate one of the mysterious relic-clocks that
began their hieroglyphic countdown during the time of
the Four Pharaohs of Ascension (see Pathfinder Module:
Entombed with the Pharaohs for more information). If it is
still possible to f ind these relics anywhere, Tumen is the
best place to start. Similarly, sages largely agree that the
art of Osirian mummif ication reached its apex during
the time of Tumen’s rule. If one intends to recover these
lost nuances of necromancy, the answers again lie in
Tumen’s ruins.
But these days Tumen also holds promise of causes
nobler than the plundering trinkets and secrets. Many
At levels 7–13, the PCs should be able to move more freely
through Tumen and face most of its challenges. Now might
be an appropriate time for the PCs to stand against the
Finless and establish a proper base of operations within the
city—perhaps this is precisely why they’ve come, recruited
as hired muscle by a team of archaeologists terrorized
by the undead bulettes. At this point, the cult of the Last
Theorem may also decide to expunge any meddlesome
outsiders—unless, of course, they were the ones who
orchestrated the PCs’ arrival as part of their bizarre
schemes. If the PCs expect to be free from the cult, they’ll
eventually need to track down Khai’s lair (the Principium)
and destroy the cult’s leadership. As they get closer to their
49
51
goal, the PCs should learn that the cult is actually rotting
from within; the Aqualinth is slowly creating more and
more replacements for the original cultists.
In the meantime, if the PCs spend significant time in
Tumen, they risk stepping into the ancient war between the
elemental tribes of the Aisi and the Goanron Triumvirate
(see the sidebar). At some point the Goanron will return to
Tumen and seek to restore the region to what the clan sees
as its natural state: a ruined city buried under an avalanche
of sand. If the PCs are not prepared to pack up and leave,
they may have to fight off the Goanron—a nigh-impossible
task unless the PCs are first able to join forces with the Aisi,
or perhaps one of the Vosh Dune Prides. It may be precisely
these elemental politics and their inf luence on surrounding
settlements that first draw the PCs to the region, with the
city of Tumen all but irrelevant—at least at first.
Finally, PCs campaigning in Tumen might also uncover
clues that the fabled pyramid Ahn’Selota is just to the
south, buried under a thousand tons of sand. It was in
this pyramid that the Four Pharaohs of Ascension hid the
secret behind the powerful pact magic that leads to their
historic rise to power. For more information, see Pathfinder
Module: The Pact Stone Pyramid.
of the PCs, and the party may find themselves facing
assassins with their own powers and abilities. Finding the
means to obliterate the Aqualinth could become a capstone
achievement to the PCs’ careers.
Random Encounters
Low Level
d%
Result
Average CR
1–6
1d6 fire beetles
1
7–12 1 venomous snake
1
13–18 1 skeletal champion
2
19–24 1 vargouille
2
25–30 1 giant mantis
3
31–36 1 shadow
3
37–42 1 an-hetkoshu*
3
43–48 1 mithral cobra
3
49–60 1d6 gnoll raiders
4
61–66 1 Finless (fast zombie bulette)
5
67–72 1 mummy
5
73–78 1d6 Carvesmen (morlocks)
5
79–84 1 basilisk
5
85–90 1d6 Cultists of the Last Theorem
(LE human cultists)
5
91–95 1 will-o’-wisp
6
96–100 1 wyvern
6
High-level PCs have their own unique challenges within
Tumen. Though many Cultists of the Last Theorem
would be easy marks for the PCs, perhaps the cult has
at last managed to gain control of the Panthereon
Ultima, and the PCs are hired by a rival organization
or government to stop them before the cultists can use
the weapon to its full potential. (Conversely, perhaps the
PCs’ home community faces some threat so great that
only f inding and controlling the Ultima can give them
the strength to win the day.) Things can become even
more complicated if either the PCs or one of the Tumen
factions accidentally awakens Te Hapsu. The mummylich might even overthrow Theorex Khai and take control
of the cult, using it as a source of minions to throw at
the PCs and reanimating them as necessary. If so, the
presence of a second usurper conf licts with the plans of
the Aqualinth. The dark artifact might seek to use the PCs
as a tool to remove this newest threat to its expansion,
and the PCs could f ind themselves with a disturbing ally
(one that may be the shadowy puppet-master responsible
for their arrival in the city).
Regardless of whether the PCs discover the location of the
Aqualinth by invitation or through their own investigation,
once they are at the peak of their powers, the PCs should be
given the chance to uncover the secret of Tumen’s original
source of water deep below the Heavenscape. Their
discovery comes with a price, however, as the Aqualinth
does not hesitate to use its power to create watery duplicates
Source
Bestiary 33
Bestiary 255
Bestiary 252
Bestiary 272
Bestiary 200
Bestiary 245
page 52
Bestiary 182
Bestiary 155
Bestiary 39, 289
Bestiary 210
Bestiary 209
Bestiary 29
GMG** 278
Bestiary 277
Bestiary 282
Medium Level
d%
Result
Average CR
1–10 1d4 army ant swarms
7
11–19 1 chimera
7
20–28 1d6 Finless (fast zombie bulettes) 8
29–37 The Word (dark stalker ranger 4) 8
38–46 1 behir
8
47–55 2d8 Priests of the Last Theorem
(LE human clerics 3)
8
56–64 1d4 medusas
9
65–73 1 couatl
10
74–82 2 dark nagas
10
83–91 1 Aisi disciple (elder air elemental) 11
92–100 1 Goanron elemental
(elder earth elemental)
11
Source
Bestiary 16
Bestiary 44
Bestiary 39, 289
Bestiary 54
Bestiary 34
—
Bestiary 201
Bestiary 49
Bestiary 211
Bestiary 121
Bestiary 123
High Level
d%
Result
Average CR
1–17
1d6 panthereons*
11
18–34 The Enumerator*
13
35–51 1 phoenix
15
52–68 1 xacarba
15
69–84 2 black scorpions
17
85–100 1 ancient blue dragon
18
* Variant or new monsters detailed in this chapter.
** See the Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide.
50
Source
page 52
pages 52–53
Bestiary 227
Bestiary 2 288
Bestiary 2 240
Bestiary 95
Tumen
The Aqualinth
Elemental Clans of Tumen
It would not have been possible for Tumen’s original
inhabitants to settle in the first place were it not for the
existence of a desert aquifer deep below the base of the
Heavenscape. Although it was originally little more than
a small, naturally occurring subterranean lake, the Four
Pharaohs were able to augment the aquifer with an ancient,
squat statue known as the Aqualinth. The Aqualinth was one
of 11 unnatural gifts the pharaohs received at the start of
their reign from an emissary of the Dark Tapestry, one of the
lightless places that lurks between and beyond the stars.
Each time the pharaohs or sorcerers under their
command infused the Aqualinth with magic, the artifact
responded by causing the central pool beneath the city to
produce a massive geyser of water. The geyser would blast
up through a vertical bore carved into the Heavenscape
and then, as gravity took over, descend through a network
of aqueducts into each of Tumen’s four districts.
Now devoid of empowering magic, the Aqualinth lies
fallow, and with the passing millennia the aquifer has
gradually evaporated down to a shadow of what it once
was, though if the Aqualinth were to be discovered and
reignited with magic, Tumen might once again become
capable of sustaining a life-bearing ecosystem.
The Aqualinth, however, is more than just a powerful
artifact that creates and distributes life-sustaining water.
It is also a malevolent entity, one gifted with its own
alien sentience. Any pool it inhabits acts as a Mirror of
Opposition. Anyone who spies her own ref lection on the
water’s surface spawns a duplicate that is fanatically loyal
to the Four Pharaohs of Ascension. With their masters
no longer among the living, however, any duplicate
doppelgangers instead work to further the baleful agenda
of the Aqualinth. These duplicates might seek to replace
their originals quietly, acting as the Aqualinth’s spies,
or might violently assassinate anyone they perceive as a
threat to the Aqualinth.
Human politics are not the only kind shaping the deserts
around Tumen. The barrens of Osirion are also the
battleground of clashing elemental clans, and several
have a particular interest in the fate of Tumen.
The Goanron Triumvirate: This ageless union of
earth, fire, and air elementals acts as the self-appointed
caretaker of the history and geo-lore of the desert shelf.
Although the order behind their movements is often
imperceptible, the Goanron constantly labor on carefully
coordinated projects to slowly restore Osirion’s wasteland
to a specific and sacred topography. Accordingly, the
Goanron periodically return to Tumen to ensure that
it remains deeply buried under thousands of tons of
carefully arranged sand. Their leader is the powerful IniKherit (LN advanced giant elder earth elemental), one of
the oldest earth elementals to ever stalk Osirion’s sands.
Ini-Kherit methodically times the Triumvirate’s more
active campaigns so that they coincide with the seasonal
khamsins, Osirion’s powerful sandstorms.
The Aisi: These destructive air elementals splintered
from the Goanron Triumvirate back in a time now
forgotten. Their leader, the charismatic prophet Aridiea
(CN advanced elder air elemental), zealously believes
that the desert has a hidden physical destiny that has
been deliberately restrained by Ini-Kherit for millennia
to further a secret agenda that he hides from the rest of
elemental-kind. Aridiea has decreed that for the desert to
advance to its true glory, Tumen must be uncovered and
exposed, and every few years the Aisi return and uncover
Tumen in all its lost majesty.
The Vosh Dune Prides: This loose federation of
elemental tribes has no true agenda other than the
exercise of their individual free will. Most individual prides
are homogenous, consisting of a single type of elemental.
However, when the Vosh Dune Prides successfully combine
their membership, they are the largest and most powerful
of the factions around Tumen. Nevertheless, as they lack
true universal leadership, the prides are only able to muster
themselves on an episodic basis. They typically converge
for short periods in a self-defensive pact in response to
threatening maneuvers by the Goanron Triumvirate.
The Aqualinth (Major Artifact)
Aura strong (all schools) [evil]; CL 18
Slot none; Weight —
DescripTion
A strange statue of some unknown dark material resembling
unnaturally slippery stone, this idol is carved in the shape of
something at once unrecognizable and terrifyingly organic, and
possesses a number of unique abilities when touching liquid.
Geyser: If four or more levels’ worth of spells are cast upon
the Aqualinth, the artifact is capable of causing the water
surrounding it to purify and multiply, generating thousands
of gallons of water. At the same time, it creates an effect
mimicking reverse gravity upon the water, causing it to shoot
up in a geyser capable of reaching a thousand feet high.
Moments later, the effect passes; the water comes crashing
down, and can be captured or diverted in the process, though
the water level of the original supply remains unchanged.
Bath of the God-Kings: Bathing in a pool infested by the
Aqualinth instantly refreshes the bather, removing any
fatigued or exhausted conditions. In addition, the bather
is treated as though he were wearing a ring of sustenance for
the next 4 months. Regular bathing for 56 days results in a
+1 increase to a single ability score of the bather’s choice—a
51
51
creature can receive this bonus only once, but can continue
to receive the other benefits of bathing in the pool.
Liquid Ones: Anyone who spies her own reflection in a pool
infested by the Aqualinth and who is not completely loyal to
the Four Pharaohs of Ascension is treated as though she had
gazed into the reflective surface of a mirror of opposition. The
duplicates created by the Aqualinth are not truly identical to
their originals. A duplicate has vulnerability to fire, losing any
fire resistance or immunity the original may have, and also
gains the water subtype. A duplicate can be distinguished
from the original with a DC 30 Perception check, as the
duplicate has a faint watery texture to its skin.
Whispering Water: Possessed of a malign and alien intellect,
the Aqualinth has an unknown agenda of its own, and is capable
of casting suggestion (save DC 31) upon anyone who drinks at
least half a gallon of water it has touched or produced.
is obsessed with the discoveries of the Pharaoh of Numbers.
He zealously believes that only by first retrieving the
pharaoh’s lost numerical revelations can Osirion’s empire
be restored to its previous glory. The Enumerator sees the
current age as an era of barbarism in which civilization
has declined into hedonism and ignorance, viewing most
of his fellow humans as little more than cattle unless and
until they can prove themselves his intellectual equal.
Despite his meticulous organizational talents, Khai
is notoriously reclusive, more likely to micromanage his
members through scrying and message spells than to permit
them to report directly. By casting mage’s magnificent mansion
daily on the outskirts of Tumen, he has created a mobile
extradimensional fortress of study, which he reserves for
himself and the higher-ranking members of the cult.
Khai’s traveling library has become known to the cult as
“the Principium,” and it is from here that the Enumerator
calculates how to best deploy the cult’s degrading resources
as they slowly comb over every last corner of Tumen. Every
few days, Khai reluctantly emerges from the Principium to
f ly up to the top of the Heavenscape in order to cast control
weather. He knows the window of opportunity for his minions
to search through Tumen is limited, and hopes to forestall
the inevitably returning sandstorms as long as possible.
Should he become aware of adventurers in Tumen, the
Enumerator quickly calculates whether they are pawns that
he can manipulate or a threat that must be eliminated.
Destruction
The Aqualinth may be evaporated into nothingness by
transporting it to the heart of a sun or star.
Variant Monsters
Many of the monsters that lurk within Tumen are variations
upon classic creatures found in Osirion’s deserts.
An-Hetkoshu: While the Hetkoshu, Osirion’s deadly
black crocodiles, are native to the banks of the River
Sphinx, many of the largest were imported to Tumen
millennia ago as gladiatorial opponents. Those few that
survive today live in subterranean aquifers deep under the
Heavenscape, where they hunt the Carvesmen and other
creatures. To create an An-Hetkoshu, use the statistics
for an advanced crocodile (see page 51 of Pathfinder RPG
Bestiary) with a climb speed of 20, and the compression
universal monster ability (it can move through an area as
small as one-quarter its space without squeezing or oneeighth its space when squeezing).
Panthereons: Tumen is also home to the panthereons,
cat-headed golems which were once built in Tumen’s
workshops to act as guardians of the city. Smaller versions
of the Panthereon Ultima, most now stand frozen as
eroded statutes, their ancient orders having been long
exhausted, but a few continue to guard the ruins. To
create a Panthereon, modify a clay golem as follows: CR
11, add bite +19 (4d6+7 plus cursed wound), speed 30 ft.,
add Improved Initiative as a bonus feat, change initiative
modifier to +3. Some of the golems may have suffered from
significant erosion over the years, in which case they may
be at below average hit points.
Theorex Khai, “The Enumerator”
XP 25,600
CR 13
Male middle-aged human abjurer 7/loremaster 7
LE Medium humanoid (human)
Init +3; Senses arcane sight 120 ft.; Perception +21
Defense
AC 13, touch 9, flat-footed 13 (+4 armor, –1 Dex)
hp 76 (14 HD; 7d6+7d6+28)
Defensive Abilities energy absorption (21/day), contingency,
DR 10/magic against ranged weapons
Offense
Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (good)
Melee khopesh +4/–1 (1d8–2/19–20)
Abjurer Spells Prepared (CL 14th; concentration +20)
7th—control weather, mage’s magnificent mansion (already
cast), spell turning
6th—disintegrate (DC 23), greater dispel magic, permanent
image, quickened invisibility, true seeing
5th—baleful polymorph (DC 22), dismissal (DC 21), nightmare
(DC 21), overland flight, teleport
4th—arcane eye, black tentacles, dimension door, lesser globe
of invulnerability (2), scrying (DC 20)
3rd—clairaudience/clairvoyance, fireball (2, DC 19), haste,
nondetection, protection from energy
The Enumerator
While the true force behind the machinations of the Cult of
the Last Theorem is unknown, when it comes to the cult’s
recent activities in Tumen, its leader is unquestionably the
Enumerator, Theorex Khai. A mathematical genius, Khai
52
Tumen
2nd—detect thoughts (DC 18), invisibility (2), mirror image,
protection from arrows (already cast), stilled grease (DC
18), stilled magic missile, web (DC 18)
1st—comprehend languages, endure elements (already cast),
expeditious retreat, mage armor (already cast), obscuring
mist, silent image (DC 17)
0 (at will)—detect magic, message, read magic, prestidigitation
Opposition Schools Enchantment, Necromancy
wounds (3), ring of counterspells (dispel magic), scroll of chain
lightning, scroll of limited wish, scroll of remove curse, wand of
dispel magic (CL 10th, 10 charges), wand of magic missile (CL 9th,
20 charges), wand of mnemonic enhancer (CL 7th, 5 charges);
Other Gear khopesh, bag of holding type I, chime of opening (4
charges), cloak of resistance +2, eyes of the eagle, headband of vast
intelligence +2, 350 gp of diamond dust (for nondetection spell),
focus for mage’s magnificent mansion, 1,442 gp
Tactics
Special Abilities
Before Combat The Enumerator always casts the following
spells every day (the effects of which are noted in his stat
block): endure elements, mage armor, mage’s magnificent
mansion, overland flight, and protection from arrows. If he
anticipates combat, he casts lesser globe of invulnerability,
true seeing, mirror image, protection from energy (usually
against fire), and expeditious retreat (in that order). If the
opportunity presents, he casts invisibility on himself
and haste on himself and his cultist minions.
During Combat The Enumerator likes to lead off by
targeting an enemy spellcaster with disintegrate,
and uses dispel magic or greater dispel magic to
counter enemy spellcasting (relying on his ring
of counterspells to protect him against similar
tactics). He uses baleful polymorph against
dangerous foes, dismissal against conjured
creatures, and fireball on weak groups.
Morale The Enumerator does not see the percentage in valor.
Where the odds of victory are poor, he flies or teleports
away, using cultists or black tentacles as cover. Once back at
the Principium, he uses nightmare the next night to weaken
his opponents for their next meeting, and observes them
using scrying to learn their weaknesses and strengths, using
nondetection to prevent them from doing the same to him.
Contingency If the Enumerator ever takes damage, he gains
improved invisibility.
Permanent Spell The Enumerator has used permanency to give
himself arcane sight.
Statistics
Feats Brew Potion, Combat Casting, Craft Wand, Exotic
Weapon Proficiency (khopesh), Greater Spell Focus
(transmutation), Improved InitiativeB, Quicken Spell, Scribe
Scroll, Shield Focus (transmutation), Skill Focus (Knowledge
[arcana]), Still Spell, ToughnessB
Skills Appraise +23, Fly +27, Intimidate +11, Knowledge (arcana)
+23, Knowledge (engineering) +23, Knowledge (history) +23,
Knowledge (planes) +23, Linguistics +23, Perception +21,
Profession (mathematician) +19, Spellcraft +23
Languages Abyssal, Aklo, Ancient Osiriani, Aquan, Auran,
Celestial, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Gnome,
Goblin, Halfling, Ignan, Infernal, Sylvan, Terran, Undercommon
SQ bonus language (Aklo), greater lore, lore +3, loremaster
secrets (applicable knowledge, more newfound arcana,
secret health), permanent spell (arcane sight), arcane bond
(ring), protective ward (6 rounds, +2 deflection, 9/day)
Combat Gear amulet of natural armor +1, potions of cure serious
53
51
Xin-Shalast
From within the mists emerges a tremendous fortress of black
stone. Beyond, hundreds of colossal, ice-covered buildings
rise skyward, piercing the heavens. The golden road continues,
edging along the mountain face. Alongside the road, great
structures cling at precarious heights, their roots nestled
into the ruins of yet even older ruins, ice, and the mountain’s
rocky soil. Xin-Shalast’s greatest irony is, of course, that even
after the fall of the Runelord of Greed, the city pulses with
a multitude of diverse factions all willing to kill each other
over the treasures that remain.
— Brodert Quink, Thassilonian Scholar
54
Xin-Shalast
I
Spoiler Alert!
t was not so long ago that Xin-Shalast was thought
no more than a fable of a past age, an impossibility
built on the exaggerations of poets, dreamers, and
madmen. That an advanced and cosmopolitan city of such
magnitude, with unimaginably vast stores of wealth, hid
atop the highest peaks of the icy Kodar Mountains, seemed
an utter impossibility. Only after the brief second coming
of Xin-Shalast’s former ruler, Karzoug, Runelord of Greed,
did Varisia suddenly tremble beneath its ominous shadows.
Its rediscovery shocked scholars and common folk alike,
and quickly attracted scores of eager, and often foolish,
adventurers to plumb its frozen spires seeking to line their
pockets with the promise of its gold-paved streets.
Following Karzoug’s destruction in 4708 ar, Xin-Shalast
transformed from myth into one of the most dangerous
and violence-driven cities in the world. Monstrous lamias
and towering rune giants gather their forces and battle
to claim the remnants of the city as their own, while
humanoids from the surrounding lowlands rush to the
lure of infinite wealth. Life expectancy is short, and many
come only to grab what treasures they can before f leeing.
However, the temptations of endless wealth seem to seduce
even the most cautious into prolonging their stays. To
date, Xin-Shalast remains an anarchic warzone, with everchanging fronts. Wards, districts, and strategic structures
shift as various groups struggle for power.
This chapter contains spoilers for “Spires of Xin-Shalast,”
the final installment of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure
Path. This book describes the city following events in the
Adventure Path, and assumes both the rediscovery of the
fabled lost city and the defeat of the runelord Karzoug.
For information on the city as it exists during Rise of the
Runelords, see Pathfinder Adventure Path #6.
On the steppes below his spire throne, he raised a terrible
city, built upon the backs of hundreds of thousands of
slaves who answered to the sadistic will of his lamia
servitors and giant enforcers. At its height, Xin-Shalast’s
population soared above a quarter million, and the lure
of its decadence drew all types beneath its gold-gleaming
rooftops. But it was not to last.
The great cataclysm of Earthfall tore apart and scattered
the Thassilonian empire as easily as a wind blows through
a field of dandelions gone to seed. The runelords f led to
safety, abandoning their cities and leaving them to fate.
Xin-Shalast was shattered by avalanches and volcanic
eruptions, which pelted large sections of the city with
pyroclastic debris and bathed others in ash. Survivors f led
into the ruins or darker places beneath the city for shelter.
Some devolved into wild, primitive things, and struggled
to keep their cultures alive along with the promise of
Karzoug’s prophesied return. For 10 millennia after
Shalast’s fall, its Runelord slept, dreaming in stasis in the
dark and twisted demiplane known as the Plateau of Leng.
But return he did, and his disciples f locked to him with
righteous fervor. Soon after his return, however, Karzoug
was besieged by a small group of adventurers, who defeated
him before he could usher in his new age.
The second fall of Karzoug again tore Xin-Shalast
apart. Those who’d dedicated their lives to the Runelord’s
return felt betrayed and immediately vowed retribution.
Throughout the city, violence erupted spontaneously. Dozens
of would-be lords rose to claim the throne of Xin-Shalast,
as if roused to some epic gladiatorial call. The resultant
anarchic frenzy left hundreds dead, further dividing the
city. Karzoug’s most devoted followers split into small,
warring tribes, desperate to claim whatever resources and
riches they could. Other survivors banded together by
race, creed, and mutualism, creating violently defended
territories and throwing the city into a tumultuous civil
war—one that shows no immediate signs of stopping.
Most recently, after news spread confirming XinShalast’s existence and its remarkable wealth, governments
throughout the region quickly organized teams of
explorers, soldiers, and colonists and then sent them
to salvage what riches they can. Success in any of these
projects may well tip the scales of power in Varisia.
Appearance
Mhar Massif, the great mountain upon which Xin-Shalast
rests, grimaces down upon the city, its stony face still
carved with the leering countenance of the Runelord of
Greed. In its ominous shadow rise hundreds of titanic
towers gouged from the sheer-faced ledges that climb the
sides of the mountain. Even from a distance, the city’s
magnitude is astonishing; as one draws closer, its truly
incredible proportions, with the largest of the cyclopean
structures built to accommodate giants, become visible.
Eerily, Xin-Shalast has suffered few of the ravages of time
and weather. Its rooftops gleam with colorful metals, and
its streets are leafed with gold.
History
Xin-Shalast is but one of seven tremendous cities erected
over 10,000 years ago, at the height of the Thassilonian
empire. Each city honored one of the seven runelords,
cruel dictators whose singular devotion to each of the
seven sins allowed them to conquer much of northwestern
Avistan. The kingdom of greed was known as Shalast, and
at its heart stood the legendary pinnacle of Mhar Massif.
Atop its highest peaks, the avaricious lord Karzoug built
his throne. It was whispered that Mhar Massif was so tall
it stabbed a rift into mysterious and potent otherworlds,
which the runelord siphoned to attain his terrible powers.
55
6
RISING
DISTRICT
Xin-Shalast:
ENTERTAINMENT
DISTRICT
TE
M
PL
Lower City
0
ER
1500
feet
3000
OW
JOTUNBURG
SLAVE
DISTRICT
ARTISAN
DISTRICT
FACE OF MHAR MASSIF
56
Xin-Shalast
Residents
The Riddleport Contingent
Xin-Shalast’s populace is a menagerie of aberrant beastthings, occult horrors, and greed-stricken humanoids, all
engaged in an anarchic dance for dominance. Shifting
powers and duplicitous alliances prevent the territorial
boundaries between various factions from remaining
static. A single giant incursion can displace three or
four settlements of lesser dwellers, in turn forcing them
into the territories of other creatures, while the inf lux of
otherworldly beings of the strange Plateau of Leng and the
subterranean Hypogeum create further territorial shifts.
The city’s mighty rune giants (Bestiary 2 130) dominate
Xin-Shalast’s naturally established social hierarchy.
Once acting to enforce Karzoug’s will, they’ve retired
to Rising District, a lone region high in the Spires that
looks down upon the entire city. Internal struggles keep
them distracted, impeding their ability to maintain the
totalitarian inf luence upon the lower city that is their
ultimate goal.
The most prominent occupants of the lower city are the
giants and the lamyros (lamia-kin). Both former servitors
of the runelords, they have fractured beneath their own
banners. The giants hold most of western Jotunburg, as
well as a few structures in the Entertainment District,
including the fortress Shahlaria. The lamyros are chief ly
situated in the eastern Entertainment District.
Primitive and barbarous, the city’s yetis have little need
or desire for Xin-Shalast’s treasures. Instead, predatory
instincts draw them to the ruins in search of humanoid
prey. After adventurers drove them from their lairs in the
Artisan District, they scaled the glaciers above the Slave
District and sculpted impregnable shelters deep within
the ice and rock. From this location they launch ruthless
raids into humanoid settlements, hunting down stray and
straggling humans for food.
The volcanic eruptions that ushered the fall of XinShalast drove the descendants of its slave populace beneath
the surface. Hunted and fearful, they adapted to their
conditions, transforming into pale, hairless creatures
known as the Spared.
A growing number of humanoid colonists make up the
remainder of the city’s inhabitants. All are recent arrivals,
funded by the governments of Varisia’s most prominent
city-states, hoping to claim Xin-Shalast’s fabulous treasures
for their own gain. At present, the most notable colonial
factions in Xin-Shalast are contingents from Janderhoff,
Magnimar, and Riddleport.
The Riddleport colonists are entirely funded by the city’s
thieves’ guild under the guise of a formal government
operation. Over all, they’re less intrusive than other
operations, a deliberate tactic intended to get their
competitors to overlook them. To gain ground, they lend
support to some of the city’s darker residents, supplying
them with food, arms, and other more esoteric or taboo
supplies. They are interested in establishing lucrative trade
operations to sell goods that elsewhere would only reach
the black markets, as even black markets fail to reach the
exorbitant profits attainable in the City of Greed. The
contingent’s most recent endeavors involve supplying
skulks with blood and feeder bodies. Those seeking shelter
or aid from the Riddleport block should be wary, as outsiders
often disappear, and are sold as slaves or sacrifices.
sense, is nonexistent. Even those merchants intrepid and
lucky enough to reach the city quickly find themselves at
the mercy of warring factions who simply seize what they
desire rather than trade or barter for it. Instead, most
imports are purchased in advance through merchants
with contacts outside the city. Purchased goods then arrive
with the next inf lux of new troops or colonists.
Food supplies are the most crucial resource. The neararctic weather conditions make growing crops difficult,
and getting livestock into the area is next to impossible
given the city’s proximity to the demiplane of Leng. Scarce
and sporadic supply shipments have created an extensive
black market for food, controlled almost entirely by the
Riddleport contingent, who rely on banditry to acquire
the bulk of their supplies, supplement them with fish and
fungus, and hunt frost drakes and yetis for meat. Trading
between rival factions is negligible, particularly between
the newer settlers and giants, lamias, and other denizens
born from lineages whose ancestry traces back to the
height of Thassilonian rule.
Many arrive under false assumptions that the city’s
gold-lined streets make for simple salvage. And in fact,
for most of the newcomers, looting remains the dominant
means of earning a living. But despite the opulence of its
architecture, the display is mostly ornamental and consists
of leafing and facade work that uses a relatively small
amount of actual wealth. Thassilonians were driven by
greed, not decadence, and stored the bulk of their riches in
well-guarded, heavily warded and trapped treasure vaults
secreted away in the darkest depths of the Hypogeum. Still,
Xin-Shalast’s hidden treasures are innumerable, and those
willing to risk such delves reap the reward of unimaginable
wealth. Ironically, however, there is little to do with one’s
spoils, at least until one returns to civilization with an
ample haul.
Relations and Trade
Despite its rediscovery, Xin-Shalast remains one of the
most isolated locations in the world. Extreme conditions
make the journey extremely difficult and casual visitation
nearly impossible. Outside trade, at least in the traditional
57
6
Sites of Interest
permanent daylight spells to support entertainment around
the clock. Most recently held by a powerful ice devil, this
prize now stands vacant for the taking. The district’s
largest arena, known as Vomarck’s Circus, once treated
150,000 spectators to a steady stream of blood sport, but
now, under the unyielding command of Aog Bloodspitter
(CE male orc barbarian 10) and a brigade of several hundred
battle-seasoned warriors of varying races, it puts on bloody
performances for much smaller crowds, if any at all.
Between these two temples to bloodsport lies the
Spolarium, or House of Cinders, so
named for the piles of ash left behind by
the thousands of corpses burned within
its furnaces. Eerymis (LE female lamia
matriarch necromancer 8) mixes this
ash with distilled fat to create an arcane
unguent for her rune giant liege lord.
The ponderous fortress of Shahlaria
formerly housed the city’s military. At
present, a mixed colony of storm and
cloud giants holds the fortress. Having
broken away from the domination
of Karzoug’s rune giants, they have
undergone great pains to secure this
block, more so against their former
masters than the newer settlers.
In the Entertainment District’s
western half, the aptly named Temple
Row remains a heavily contested
borough of the city. The House of
Divine Consumption, Karzoug’s
fabled temple of greed, is rumored
to house endless treasures in its cellars, luring almost
every faction to attempt to claim it. It remains an active
and bloody war zone, and merely approaching the church
provokes attack by rival treasure-seekers.
Jotunburg: The buildings of Jotunburg stand apart from
those in the rest of the Lower City because of their colossal
scale. Originally housing most of Xin-Shalast’s giant
population, Jotunburg still serves as home to warring
tribes of cloud, frost, stone, storm, and taiga giants.
Among the cyclopean structures, a mass of monstrous
plants and fungi known as the Tangle springs from a
geothermal rift. Sentient plant-creatures subservient
to a deific yellow musk creeper of epic proportion and
otherworldly intelligence live here, some of the few nongiant residents of Jotunburg.
Perhaps the most notable single structure in Jotunburg
is the Observatorium, a half-collapsed dome inside which
the mad stone giant Agmaat Granitejaw (NE male stone
giant druid 4) breeds frost drakes as war pets.
Rising District: The Rising District gets its name from
the steep incline that dominates the district, causing the
Lower Xin-Shalast is comprised of four main districts.
The Artisan District serves as the city’s gateway, bridging
the lower city to the gigantean structures of Jotunburg,
the broad arenas of the Entertainment District, and the
staggering temples of Temple Row. The rest of the lower
city, once the Slave District, now lies buried beneath
sheets of rock and glacial ice. Above the Lower City, the
Rising District climbs the walls of the valley between the
Entertainment District and the Pinnacle of Avarice at the
top of Mhar Massif.
Artisan District: This is the
southernmost of Xin-Shalast’s
districts, and in the city’s heyday
was home to Shalast’s most esteemed
craftsmen and merchants. Countless
shops and bazaars line the Golden
Road here, culminating around Massif
Square, where Magnimar’s ill-fated
forces now hold fast in the surrounding
ruins, desperately low on supplies and
eagerly hoping for an alliance. Weakened
after a yeti attack, they operate under
the loose direction of Sadric Plemnt (LG
male human cleric of Sarenrae 4).
The
dwarven
contingent
from
Janderhoff occupies a less vulnerable
position within the fortress of Krak
Naratha, whose sheer stone walls protect
the dwarves from the dangers of the city.
Under the ambitious leadership of Nordin
Stonehands (LN male dwarf fighter 8), they
eagerly seek to reclaim wealth stolen from their
ancestors in centuries past, which the dwarves blame on the
murderous giants who controlled much of Varisia in the Age of
Darkness, after the runelords’ fall.
Tunnels beneath the structure connect with the
Shattered Cistern, where Riddleport’s agents have nestled
themselves amid the labyrinthine network of sewers and
subterranean aqueducts, which in turn lead to higher
levels in the Rising District. Under the leadership of Fira
Elmsran (LE female human fighter 6/rogue 4), the agents
use the passages to traverse the city, though it’s only a
matter of time before some horror living in the dark waters
notices them.
Entertainment District: Once home to Xin-Shalast’s
most extravagant displays of wealth, the Entertainment
District remains one of the most exotic locales in the
ruined city. Among the crumbling theaters, pleasure
palaces, and galleries that originally gave the district its
name, a number of monstrous factions vie for power.
The Heptaric Lotus, a towering, 500-foot-tall domed
arena, can seat upward of 90,000 spectators, and employs
58
Xin-Shalast
Absent Korvosans
Golden Road to climb in great vertical tiers up the side of
Mhar Massif. The great Rune Gates mark the entrance to
the Rising District, separating it from Lower Shalast. Here
lived the city’s nobility—its monstrous lamias, giants, and
others with enough power and wealth to stand among them.
Massive towers cling to the mountain’s sheer face, though
unlike those of the Lower City, time has torn them apart, and
they occasionally collapse and spill down the steep incline.
Slave District: The most heavily damaged of the XinShalast’s districts is the Slave District, where countless
lives were lost when an avalanche of ash and pyroclastic
f lows from a nearby volcanic eruption buried the poor,
overpopulated masses of the district in mere minutes.
Today, the district is further marred by the Great Glacier,
which pushes ever forward, slowly devouring the ruins
in its path. The doleful descendents of the ancient
Thassilonians known as the Spared make their homes in
a miles-long network of snaking warrens carved into the
ice and earth.
High atop the Great Glacier, hundreds of yetis inhabit
Agrok Maol, a terrible stronghold carved into the living ice.
Though barbaric, their recent raids display a great degree of
calculation and strategy thanks to the commanding efforts
of their new chieftain, a hulking yeti with elaborately
braided fur known as Agrok. Though the yetis are unaware
of it, their new chieftain, Gyukak (LE male ogre mage), is
an impostor who now tries a new tactic for obtaining power
after previously failing to stir the giants into uprising.
Unlike the other Varisian city-states of Magnimar and
Riddleport, Korvosa has yet to dispatch a full expedition
to the newly discovered City of Greed. Entangled in
internal political struggles, the city’s monarchy has
formed a tenuous alliance with the Janderhoff Dwarves
to represent them in Xin-Shalast’s exploration. To
date, the dwarves seem primarily focused on their
own interests, angering Korvosa’s lone representative,
Elasias Tamberlin (LN male human conjurer 7), who has
begun devoting his time and energy to convincing his
city’s government that time is of the essence. Further
delay in colonizing Xin-Shalast, he argues, could shut
Korvosa out of the power struggle entirely.
encounter. Local fauna have adapted to these conditions,
making them even more dangerous. The city is hemmed
by sheer cliffs and glaciers, threatened by volcanic activity,
and rests precariously upon miles of ancient ruins that
threaten to collapse—or worse, release unimaginable
monstrosities. The Rising District and upper spires above
the city provide a home to giants, dragons, and similarly
high-CR creatures, and lastly, the entire city is hedged by
the maddening, occult energies of the Plateau of Leng.
Now free from the threat of its tyrannical runelord, the
establishment of mainstream colonies within the lower
city creates a demand for skilled and talented explorers
willing to risk life and limb in the race to locate the city’s
riches and bleed them dry. The campaign likely starts in
the lowlands where PCs answer a call to serve as agents
for one of several small colonies attempting to establish
a foothold in the fabled city of greed. Initial adventures
should probably take place outside the city and involve
acquiring elements necessary to make the journey to XinShalast a success, such as lost lore, copies of the infamous
Vekker brothers’ journals, artifacts from Leng, or items
that allow the PCs to survive in extreme climates. It’s
probably a good idea to allow the PCs to build up to at
least 3rd level before attempting the journey. At this point,
they can take on a contract to help lead the expedition, or
perhaps serve as expert guides and guardians to a party of
colonists. It is important that the PCs enter Xin-Shalast
with a solid foundation of contacts and a settlement to
serve as a home base; otherwise, they will be without a safe
place to rest and resupply.
Upon reaching Xin-Shalast, the PCs entrench
themselves in the needs of their colony, for without
the colony, it’s likely they too will perish. At this stage,
adventures may concern fortifying the settlement or
finding sources of water and other supplies to ensure self-
The Xin-Shalast Campaign
While many venture to the City of Greed seeking to snatch
what riches they can before f leeing with their lives, XinShalast’s scope is so extensive that a GM who desires to
do so can easily construct an entire campaign around its
exploration. Xin-Shalast holds unimaginable wealth, and
those first to seize it can attain power beyond imagining.
GMs who are preparing a Xin-Shalast campaign should
first consider an overarching theme to tie their ideas
together. The most obvious themes concern ways in which
the PCs might shape Xin-Shalast’s enduring destiny. This
may mean freeing Xin-Shalast from the supernatural
inf luence of Leng, releasing some epic creature trapped
within Mhar Massif, or simply working one’s way up the
food chain to become Shalast’s new rulers. A GM may
even develop a combination of these themes or introduce
her own elements. In this manner, themes develop as
characters advance and shift from those affected by the
strange and mythical city to the ones affecting it.
Xin-Shalast is not for the faint of heart. In fact, little
prevents the city from being an all-out deathtrap. The
journey alone, with its extreme altitude, avalanches,
freezing temperatures, and blinding snowstorms, can kill
even the most stalwart explorers even without a single
59
6
Runescarred Template
upper districts, adventures should make use of territories
both outside and beneath the city. At this stage (if you
haven’t done so already), begin introducing the minions
and machinations of major villains to establish those
campaign themes needed to pull the PCs together when
they enter their high levels. The PCs should start exploring
farther afield from the Artisan District, venturing into the
northern districts, the glacier, and the Hypogeum, as well
as the grueling wilderness that surrounds the city.
One possible hook begins as the frost drake population
makes a dramatic increase. The skies over the Lower City
thrum with the beating wings of these great, degenerate
dragons as they hunt indiscriminately, feasting on
whatever prey they can find. The PCs must venture into
Jotunburg to investigate Agmaat Granitejaw’s drakebreeding operation.
Alternatively, after a Janderhoff delver discovers an
ancient shrine, he suddenly turns rogue, murders his allies,
and absconds with an alchemical fire-gouter, which he uses
to blast through the glacier, f leeing into the cellars of the
Slave District. The PCs are contracted to hunt him down,
retrieve the device, and determine the cause of his insanity.
If you wish to lead the PCs closer to the Rising District,
they may catch wind that one of their rivals has recently
unearthed new information concerning the location of the
Book of Ebidwar, a fabled text of ancient martial strategies
said to lie in a dungeon beneath Shahlaria. The PCs’
rival has already assembled a strike team of able delvers
to lead an expedition into the depths beneath the fortress
to recover the text. The PCs must race them and seize the
book before the opposing faction gains a potent advantage
in their fight to control the City of Greed.
A group of renegade warriors who have broken with the
traditions of their ancestors now serve as the Janderhoff
dwarves’ primary offense against the giants of the upper
spires. Calling themselves the Runescarred, these dwarves
fight fire with fire, scarring their skin during taboo rituals
to become much like the rune giants they seek to defeat.
Runescarred is a simple template that can be added
to any humanoid creature. The runescarred template
hardens the base creature’s skin, granting it a +2 natural
armor bonus and the rune spark special ability. Increase a
runescarred creature’s base CR by +1.
Rune Spark (Su) 3 times per day, a runescarred creature
can focus energy from its runes and discharge it through a
metal weapon as a ranged touch attack. Upon a successful
melee attack, the weapon releases a blast of arcane sparks
that daze the target for 1 round and deal 1d6 points of
damage (half fire and half electricity). The runescarred
must declare that he is preparing his rune spark ability
prior to the attack. If the attack misses, the rune spark is
discharged and the creature must wait 1d4+1 rounds for
his runic energies to build before attempting to use his
rune spark ability again.
sufficiency. As the PCs advance, their sponsors contract
them for increasingly risky missions. These can include
plumbing the Hypogeum for treasures or clearing and
seizing territory in the name of their patrons, engaging
in subterfuge against rival settlements, defending against
various creatures or forces of rival exploration operations,
surviving destructive natural or supernatural forces, or
warring with strange and ancient denizens now displaced
and forced into the lower city by more powerful creatures.
Still, try to limit the PCs’ activities to those territories
surrounding their settlements in the Artisan District,
and stress the horrors that lurk beyond. As they press
toward the boundaries, they should spot patrols of giants
striding through the ruins and frost drakes winging
overhead. They might also witness the brutal savaging
of neighboring encampments by a horde of yetis. Such
tactics help GMs build a continually growing sense of the
city’s dangers as well as of the challenges PCs might be
expected to face. Use NPCs to contribute by pointing out
and naming various iconic creatures, such as a hill giant
living in a nearby territory or a tribe of Spared with whom
they occasionally trade.
Once PCs reach 14th level, they should be capable of
surviving every part of the city. This hardly guarantees
them safety, however, as Xin-Shalast is geared for highlevel adventuring. New areas of the city are now open to PC
exploration. The PCs can even venture into the territories
above the city, such as the Rising District or the dizzying
spires of the Pinnacle of Avarice, where the remains of
Karzoug’s fortress stand.
At this point, the objectives of the adventures should
shift again, consolidating even more toward the climax
of your campaign, and adventures might center on the
iconic geography that def ines Xin-Shalast.
If you wish to explore the mysteries of Mhar Massif in
your campaign, the PCs may discover pre-Thassilonian
runes hinting that Mhar Massif serves an even older,
more cryptic purpose. The interpretations are deliberately
misleading. Some hint that the mountain imprisons
a supernatural entity, while others speculate it holds
something else, like a powerful artifact or a supernatural
By mid-level, the PCs should develop a feel for the city and
may decide how they hope to inf luence it. The PCs are now
likely strong enough to withstand more trying adventures.
To keep things varied, in addition to exploring more of the
60
Xin-Shalast
rune of unmaking capable of triggering vast entropy.
The PCs must delve deep into the Hypogeum to recover
further runes, but they soon discover a race of powerful
supernatural beings whose sole purpose is to protect these
runes. Once these beings awake, they set to work on their
destiny, undoing cryptic seals and releasing what lies
inside the mysterious mountain.
Similarly, you could focus a high-level campaign on the
nearby Plateau of Leng. Twisted outsiders may attempt
to steal Xin-Shalast in its entirety by sucking it into the
demiplane. Alternatively, they could seek to perform the
inverse, breeching the Material Plane in an attempt to
extend the mysterious mists of Leng down the mountain
to create a race of mindless servitor humans or turn
thousands of innocents into chattel.
52–57 3 xorns
9
58–62 2d4 lamias
9
63–67 1 roc
9
68–72 3d4 ogres
10
73–77 2 stone giants
10
78–81 2d4 winter wolves
10
82–87 3 frost drakes
11
88–93 Skulk natives
(N skulk cleric 5 and 2d6 skulks) 11
94–100 Yeti tribe***
11
* CN human rogues 4.
** NE human transmuter 6 with 2d3 fighters 3.
*** CE yeti barbarian 8 and 2d4 yetis.
d%
Result
Average CR Source
1–7
2d3 frost giants
12
Bestiary 149
8–13 2d3 crag spiders (giant tarantula) 12
Bestiary 2 256
14–18 2d4 denizens of Leng
12
Bestiary 2 82
19–23 2 cloud giants
13
Bestiary 147
24–29 2d6 hill giants
13
Bestiary 150
30–35 1 storm giant
13
Bestiary 152
36–41 2d4 stone giants
13
Bestiary 151
42–47 1 lamia matriarch sorcerer 5
13
Bestiary 2 175
48–52 1 mountain roper (advanced roper) 14
Bestiary 237, 294
53–58 1 advanced ice devil
14
Bestiary 77, 294
59–63 3d4 advanced frost drakes
14
Bestiary 2 108, 292
64–69 1 ancient white dragon
15
Bestiary 101
70–76 1d4 taiga giants
15
Bestiary 2 131
77–82 1 rune giant
17
Bestiary 2 130
83–86 1 ice linnorm
17
Bestiary 191
87–92 1 wendigo
17
Bestiary 2 281
93–100 Acolyte of Greed*
18
—
* CE human transmuter 19
Low Level
d%
Result
Average CR Source
1–7
1 ghoul (ancient Thassilonian)
1
Bestiary 146
8–13 1 skulk
1
Bestiary 2 248
14–18 1 cave fisher
2
Bestiary 41
19–23 1 rat swarm
2
Bestiary 232
24–29 1d4 yellow musk zombies
2
Bestiary 285
30–34 2d3 dire rats
3
Bestiary 232
35–40 1 ice mephit
3
Bestiary 202
41–46 2d4 raiders (human rogue 2)
3
—
47–51 2d3 stirges
3
Bestiary 260
52–57 1 yeth hound
3
Bestiary 286
58–62 1 decapus
4
Bestiary 2 77
63–67 1d4 giant spiders
4
Bestiary 258
68–72 1 ogre
4
Bestiary 220
73–77 1 yeti
4
Bestiary 287
78–81 1 Huge plague zombie
5
Bestiary 288
82–87 Janderhoff miners*
5
—
88–93 Avaricious colonists**
5
—
94–100 1 polar bear (advanced grizzly bear) 5
Bestiary 31, 294
* 1 runescarred axeman (LN dwarf runescarred fighter 2) with
1d4 dwarf warriors 1.
** 1 NE human transmuter 3 with 2d3 warriors 1.
The Plateau of Leng
It is said that the path to Xin-Shalast rests at the head
of the River Avah which winds high into the Kodar
Mountains and up the terrible face of Mhar Massif.
Simply f inding the Avah’s riverhead hardly guarantees
locating the fabled Golden Road which leads to the City of
Greed, however. The riverhead sits on the edge of a mystic
realm of warped reality under the profound inf luence of
the dark and twisted demiplane known as the Plateau of
Leng. The runelords tapped Leng’s ominous power to
protect the city, sheltering it from sight by tearing the
fabric of existence.
To see the Golden Road, one must fast at the riverhead
and wait until the full moon becomes properly aligned with
Leng; only then do its alien effects become apparent. The
precise nature of Leng’s effects remains immeasurable and
unpredictable, yet they are immediate and often severe. As
if the plane itself can sense sentience, those entering its
Medium Level
Result
Average CR
1 dire polar bear (dire bear)
7
1 hill giant
7
1 remorhaz
7
1 crag spider (giant tarantula)
8
1 denizen of Leng
8
2d3 harpies
8
2d4 Riddleport raiders*
8
2 shambling mounds
8
Avaricious colonists**
9
Bestiary 2 248
Bestiary 287
High Level
Random Encounters
d%
1–7
8–13
14–18
19–23
24–29
30–34
35–40
41–46
47–51
Bestiary 284
Bestiary 186
Bestiary 236
Bestiary 220
Bestiary 151
Bestiary 280
Bestiary 2 108
Source
Bestiary 31
Bestiary 150
Bestiary 233
Bestiary 2 256
Bestiary 2 82
Bestiary 172
—
Bestiary 246
—
61
6
slave-guides. Some of these individuals even seem innately
drawn to the locale. Their handlers, many now serving as
specialist guides, leash these unfortunates with ropes like
wild dogs, and let the slaves lead them up the mountains.
Those unwilling or unable to procure insane guides
employ a foul, arcane toxin called nightmare tears, which
when applied directly to the eyes induces blindness and
mental derangement, enough so that the Golden Road
becomes clear. While it is said that those using nightmare
tears to find the Golden Road cannot avoid seeing its path,
and are almost drawn into it, its use remains risky, as the
negative effects can sometimes become permanent.
inf luence are filled with an unnatural dread. All living
creatures perceive this inf luence as a strange, unsettling
change they cannot quite identify. Those who succeed
on a DC 20 Wisdom check experience f lashes of insight,
and understand that the uneasiness is caused by their
unnatural proximity to the cold and foreboding realm of
alien twilight. Not long after entering, all intelligent life
begins to suffer from dire dreams of alien horrors and
nightmares of being transformed into maggots or bled
dry by great cephalopods. Similarly, animals immediately
become shaken and attempt to f lee, even attacking each
other or their masters in the attempt to escape; no animal
willingly travels into the region. The effect on animals
does not apply to animal companions, familiars, or other
creatures similarly compelled to the PCs’ service. At this
time, those brave or foolhardy enough to walk the Golden
Road may attempt to do so.
Those attempting the first step immediately fall victim
to Leng’s inf luence. They must succeed on a DC 25 Will
save or fall prey to disorienting delusions that cause the
individual to stray from the road (protection from chaos
grants a +2 bonus against this Will save). Days later, after
the deluded individual finally wanders out of those regions
under Leng’s reality-warping inf luence, she discovers
herself to be at an unknown location—lost high in the
Kodar Mountains. Leng’s strange inf luence also affects
any attempts to mark one’s passage. The effect is so subtle
that an explorer who fails the Will save simply emerges
on the opposite slope of Mhar Massif without ever setting
foot near Xin-Shalast. Those able to save against the effect
may follow the road freely, though they remain susceptible
to any of the realm’s other effects.
Certain magic can be employed to lessen Leng’s realitywarping effects. True seeing bypasses the effect entirely.
The Golden Road becomes clear, but should the individual
on which true seeing was cast attempt to stray from the
road, she soon discovers the distortion works in reverse,
and regardless of how the character proceeds, she always
finds herself back on the Golden Road facing Leng. This
effect may be broken with a DC 25 Will save. A character
who attempts to teleport into this region from outside (or
out from within) must make a DC 30 Caster Level check or
the spell fails.
The corrupting inf luences of Leng interract strangely
with the minds of those suffering from insanity. Similarly,
creatures teetering on the brink of death due to age,
starvation, or hypothermia may peer into the desolate
realm as their minds f licker. Thus, insane or dying
creatures may see the Golden Road as though under the
effects of a true seeing spell.
Recently, seekers of the city have begun practicing a
disturbing method of finding the Golden Road. Purchasing
the insane from asylums, they force them to serve them as
Nightmare Tears
Aura faint divination; CL 5th
Slot none; Price 250 gp; Weight —
Description
Nightmare tears are a toxic alchemical solution that, when
applied to the eyes, allows the individual to see past certain
supernatural effects, as the spell true seeing. These include
reality-warping effects such as those caused by the Plateau of
Leng and spells or supernatural powers that create phantasms
such as weird, nightmare, and phantasmal killer. The effect of
the tears lasts for 1 hour.
Nightmare tears have horrific side effects—users suffer both
temporary blindness and insanity. Immediately after applying
the tears, the user goes blind for 1d4 rounds and looses 1d4
points of Wisdom until the tears wear off. However, if the user
fails a DC 11 Will save, both effects become permanent.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, blindness, true seeing
Cost 125 gp
Lamyros
During the golden age of Xin-Shalast, lamyros (or lamiakin, as they are more often called) f locked to the City of
Greed and quickly swore their allegiance to the runelords,
embracing their values and transforming into noble lords
and enforcers. In turn, the runelords used their extensive
powers to modify these creatures, creating new aberrant
and perverse monstrosities of great cunning, wisdom,
and power. For more information on lamia-kin, see
Pathfinder Adventure Path #6, available at paizo.com.
Harridan: The most powerful of the lamyros are the
gigantic harridans. Ambitious, capricious, and sadistic,
these towering lamia-kin inspire dread even among their
own kind, and often serve as the spiritual leaders of the
lamyros’ dark faith.
Hungerer: Warped in Karzoug’s f leshlabs, these
hideously deformed, bloated harridans believe the runelord
bestowed upon them his special blessings. Among their
many abilities, they are especially effective at terrorizing
and disgusting those upon whom their forces descend.
62
Xin-Shalast
Kuchrima: These vile and filthy creatures most resemble
vulture-headed harpies. They are notorious spreaders of
disease and skilled archers.
Lamia Matriarch: Lamia matriarchs possess long,
serpentine bodies, instead of the feline bodies of their lesser
kin, and cast spells as sorcerers. They often take the form
of ordinary humans, infiltrating society and manipulating
weak souls to their wills. For more information, see page
175 of the Pathfinder Bestiarty 2.
Special Abilities
Command Giant (Su) A rune giant gains a +4 racial bonus on the
save DC of charm or compulsion effects used against giants.
Runes (Ex) As a free action, whenever a rune giant uses its
spark shower or spell-like abilities, it can cause the runes
on its body to flash with light. All creatures within 10 feet of
the giant must make a DC 24 Fortitude save or be blinded
for 1 round. The saving throw is Charisma-based.
Spark Shower (Su) As a standard action, a rune giant can
cause a shower of sparks to erupt out of one of the runes
on its body. These sparks function as a breath weapon
(30-ft. cone; 10d6 fire and 10d6 electricity damage; Reflex
DC 29 half; usable once every 1d4 rounds). The save DC is
Constitution-based.
Graithzog Ebonrunes
Among the most powerful of Xin-Shalast’s rune giants, Graithzog
Ebonrunes stands the best chance of filling the power void left
after Karzoug’s defeat. Graithzog has had unparalleled success
in forming alliances with the most inf luential lamyros in the
city, and hopes to bring the many feuding tribes of lesser giants
under his command as well. If approached by one of the competing
exploratory contingents from lower Varisia with a reasonable offer,
Graithzog could easily tip the balance of power among the warring
city-states, though he is hardly a trustworthy ally.
Graithzog Ebonrunes
XP 204,800
CR 19
Male rune giant fighter 2 (Bestiary 2 130)
LE Gargantuan humanoid (giant)
Init +0; Senses low-light vision; Perception +31
Defense
AC 30, touch 6, flat-footed 30 (+9 armor, +15 natural, –4 size)
hp 302 (20d8+2d10+200)
Fort +18, Ref +6, Will +20; +1 vs. fear
Defensive Abilities bravery +1; Immune cold, electricity, fire
Offense
Speed 35 ft.
Melee mwk cold iron greatsword +30/+25/+20/+15 (4d6+22/17–
20), 2 slams +28 (2d6+15)
Special Attacks command giants, runes, spark shower
Constant—air walk
At will—charm person (DC 15), suggestion (DC 17)
3/day— dominate person (DC 19), mass charm monster (DC 22)
1/day—demand (DC 22), true seeing
Statistics
Feats Awesome Blow, Cleave, Critical Focus, Great Cleave,
Greater Bull Rush, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical
(greatsword), Improved Vital Strike, Iron Will, Power Attack,
Staggering Critical, Vital Strike, Weapon Focus (greatsword)
Skills Acrobatics +17, Craft (weapons) +27, Knowledge
(history) +13, Knowledge (nobility) +13, Perception +31
Languages Common, Giant, Terran, Thassilonian
Gear masterwork full plate, masterwork cold iron greatsword
63
6
®
™
Advance Your Game
The new Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Player’s Guide offers six new character classes, tons
of options for Core Rulebook characters, new feats, prestige classes, magic items, and more than 300
pages of new material designed to advance your Pathfinder characters to the next level!
Advanced Player’s Guide • Available Now
Paizo Publishing, LLC, the Paizo golem logo, and Pathfinder are registered trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC, and the
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is a trademark of Paizo Publishing, LLC. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC.
OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a
The following text is the property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and is Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc (“Wizards”). All Rights Reserved.
1. Definitions: (a) “Contributors” means the copyright and/or trademark owners who have contributed Open Game Content; (b) “Derivative
Material” means copyrighted material including derivative works and translations (including into other computer languages), potation,
modification, correction, addition, extension, upgrade, improvement, compilation, abridgment or other form in which an existing work may
be recast, transformed or adapted; (c) “Distribute” means to reproduce, license, rent, lease, sell, broadcast, publicly display, transmit or otherwise
distribute; (d) “Open Game Content” means the game mechanic and includes the methods, procedures, processes and routines to the extent
such content does not embody the Product Identity and is an enhancement over the prior art and any additional content clearly identified
as Open Game Content by the Contributor, and means any work covered by this License, including translations and derivative works under
copyright law, but specifically excludes Product Identity. (e) “Product Identity” means product and product line names, logos and identifying
marks including trade dress; artifacts, creatures, characters, stories, storylines, plots, thematic elements, dialogue, incidents, language, artwork,
symbols, designs, depictions, likenesses, formats, poses, concepts, themes and graphic, photographic and other visual or audio representations;
names and descriptions of characters, spells, enchantments, personalities, teams, personas, likenesses and special abilities; places, locations,
environments, creatures, equipment, magical or supernatural abilities or effects, logos, symbols, or graphic designs; and any other trademark or
registered trademark clearly identified as Product identity by the owner of the Product Identity, and which specifically excludes the Open Game
Content; (f ) “Trademark” means the logos, names, mark, sign, motto, designs that are used by a Contributor to identify itself or its products or
the associated products contributed to the Open Game License by the Contributor (g) “Use”, “Used” or “Using” means to use, Distribute, copy,
edit, format, modify, translate and otherwise create Derivative Material of Open Game Content. (h) “You” or “Your” means the licensee in terms
of this agreement.
2. The License: This License applies to any Open Game Content that contains a notice indicating that the Open Game Content may only be
Used under and in terms of this License. You must affix such a notice to any Open Game Content that you Use. No terms may be added to or
subtracted from this License except as described by the License itself. No other terms or conditions may be applied to any Open Game Content
distributed using this License.
3. Offer and Acceptance: By Using the Open Game Content You indicate Your acceptance of the terms of this License.
4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for agreeing to use this License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free,
non-exclusive license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content.
5. Representation of Authority to Contribute: If You are contributing original material as Open Game Content, You represent that Your
Contributions are Your original creation and/or You have sufficient rights to grant the rights conveyed by this License.
6. Notice of License Copyright: You must update the COPYRIGHT NOTICE portion of this License to include the exact text of the COPYRIGHT
NOTICE of any Open Game Content You are copying, modifying or distributing, and You must add the title, the copyright date, and the copyright
holder’s name to the COPYRIGHT NOTICE of any original Open Game Content you Distribute.
7. Use of Product Identity: You agree not to Use any Product Identity, including as an indication as to compatibility, except as expressly licensed in
another, independent Agreement with the owner of each element of that Product Identity. You agree not to indicate compatibility or co-adaptability
with any Trademark or Registered Trademark in conjunction with a work containing Open Game Content except as expressly licensed in another,
independent Agreement with the owner of such Trademark or Registered Trademark. The use of any Product Identity in Open Game Content does
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rights, title and interest in and to that Product Identity.
8. Identification: If you distribute Open Game Content You must clearly indicate which portions of the work that you are distributing are Open
Game Content.
9. Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Agents may publish updated versions of this License. You may use any authorized version of this
License to copy, modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under any version of this License.
10. Copy of this License: You MUST include a copy of this License with every copy of the Open Game Content You distribute.
11. Use of Contributor Credits: You may not market or advertise the Open Game Content using the name of any Contributor unless You have
written permission from the Contributor to do so.
12. Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any of the terms of this License with respect to some or all of the Open Game
Content due to statute, judicial order, or governmental regulation then You may not Use any Open Game Material so affected.
13. Termination: This License will terminate automatically if You fail to comply with all terms herein and fail to cure such breach within 30 days of
becoming aware of the breach. All sublicenses shall survive the termination of this License.
14. Reformation: If any provision of this License is held to be unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to
make it enforceable.
15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
System Reference Document. Copyright 2000. Wizards of the Coast, Inc; Authors: Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on material
by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
Cave Fisher from the Tome of Horrors. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Lawrence Schick.
Dark Creeper from the Tome of Horrors. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Rik Shepard.
Dark Stalker from the Tome of Horrors. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Simon Muth.
Decapus from the Tome of Horrors, Revised. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Jean Wells.
Froghemoth from the Tome of Horrors. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene and Clark Peterson, based on original material
by Gary Gygax.
Iron Cobra from the Tome of Horrors. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Philip Masters.
Lurker Above from the Tome of Horrors, Revised. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Gary Gygax.
Mongrelman from the Tome of Horrors, Revised. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Gary Gygax.
Nabasu Demon from the Tome of Horrors. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Gary Gygax.
Pech from the Tome of Horrors, Revised. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Gary Gygax.
Skulk from the Tome of Horrors, Revised. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Simon Muth.
Vegepygmy from the Tome of Horrors. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene and Clark Peterson, based on original material
by Gary Gygax.
Yellow Musk Creeper from the Tome of Horrors. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Albie Fiore.
Yellow Musk Zombie from the Tome of Horrors. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Albie Fiore.
Yeti from the Tome of Horrors. © 2002, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene, based on original material by Gary Gygax.
Advanced Bestiary. © 2004, Green Ronin Publishing, LLC; Author Matthew Sernett.
Marid from the Tome of Horrors III. © 2005, Necromancer Games, Inc.; Author Scott Greene.
Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and
Skip Williams.
Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. © 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide. © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Cam Banks, Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, Jim Butler, Eric Cagle,
Graeme Davis, Adam Daigle, Joshua J. Frost, James Jacobs, Kenneth Hite, Steven Kenson, Robin Laws, Tito Leati, Rob McCreary, Hal Maclean, Colin
McComb, Jason Nelson, David Noonan, Richard Pett, Rich Redman, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Amber Scott, Doug Seacat, Mike Selinker,
Lisa Stevens, James L. Sutter, Russ Taylor, Penny Williams, Skip Williams, Teeuwynn Woodruff.
Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide. © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn.
Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2. © 2010, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, Adam Daigle, Graeme Davis, Crystal Frasier,
Joshua J. Frost, Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, James Jacobs, Steve Kenson, Hal MacLean, Martin Mason, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Jason Nelson,
Patrick Renie, Sean K Reynolds, F. Wesley Schneider, Owen K.C. Stephens, James L. Sutter, Russ Taylor, and Greg A. Vaughan, based on material by
Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC. Authors: Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, Michael Kortes,
Jason Nelson, and Russ Taylor.
Ruin Awaits!
Golarion is an old world, and even its oldest civilizations stand atop
the ruins of more ancient nations, long lost to the ravages of time. Each
of the six cities presented in this book offers enough new challenges
and treasures to support an entire campaign of any level. Take your
game into the great unknown and make history at your table!
Lost cities in this book include:
► Ilvarandin, a teeming metropolis hidden deep in the treacherous
Darklands, ruled by sinister creatures who supply the surface
with a strange drug, through which they plan to enslave the
entire world’s dreams.
► Kho, the crashed flying city of the ancient Shory, whose stillsputtering magical engines lure explorers to the verdant Mwangi
Expanse—and into the clutches of its resident marids, plaguebearing daemons, and winged ape-men.
► Storasta, the once-verdant jewel of Sarkorian civilization now
enveloped by the Worldwound, where the corrupted forces of
nature battle the hordes of the Abyss for control.
► The Sun Temple Colony, where humanity struggles against a
twisted godling and a fire-spewing orbital lens in an attempt
to establish civilization on the ruined continent of Azlant.
► Tumen, the ancient Osirian cliff-city, where cultists, golems,
and desert elementals guard the greatest works of longforgotten pharaohs.
► Xin-Shalast, City of Greed, in which gold-paved streets and
crumbling mountainside monoliths lead to ultimate wealth
and the strange otherworld of the Plateau of Leng.
Lost Cities of Golarion is intended for use with the Pathfinder
Roleplaying Game and Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily
be used in any fantasy game setting.
®
TM
paizo.com/pathfinder
Printed in China PZO9229

PZO9229 Lost Cities of Golarion

Transcription

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